TKS

Sorry you had such a bad time getting through customs in Vancouver. Please do not give Vancouver a black eye because of this. It is the fault of the US Customs. They simply do not put enough staff on to process the multitudes embarking.

Sorry, I didn't mean to denigrate Vancouver. It is a beautiful city, and we had a wonderful time during the three days we spent there. I would love to visit again, but I won't sail out of there again.

Oh, and all the customs stations were open, the facility was simply too small to accommodate the 10,000 people boarding that day (# from a newspaper article that morning). If the cruise companies won't control that, the cities can. Some already have - for example Venice and Savannah. In the long run it will make for a better experience for both cruisers and local citizens., and be better for the longevity of the cruise industry in port cities.

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Unless you are in a port like Vancouver heading to Alaska. There it is simply stand/shuffle/sit/grumble in line until all 10,000 people in port that day get through customs. Only then does your 'status' count with the cruise line.

From our May trip from Vancouver - time to get through customs = 3 hours, time to get through check-in with Celebrity - 3 minutes.

We have very few needs of a butler either.

OP suggested a lower price if one didn't want the to partake the 'option' of a butler.

I understand that question, however, the butlers are highly-trained (and I expect higher-paid) employees of the cruise line. To 'opt out' would mean these folks would not get their portion of your tips; therefore, if very many on a particular cruise 'opted out' the butler's income would be adversely impacted. And since we usually tip additional amounts above the included tips, it would mean an even greater impact to their income.

The butlers are professional, and they are proud of their work. In my opinion, even though we don't use them very much, I'm still willing to pay for their services for the few times we do use them during a typical cruise. (personal story - one evening I wasn't feeling well, so DH went alone to dinner - butler met him along the way, asked where I was, and when he learned I was staying in the room because I didn't feel well, he came to offer any help he could. THAT is professional, and caring service.)

Disembarked May 13 from a cruise there. No problems with transportation. If you are concerned, arrange for a shuttle to the airport. Sorry, I can't help with cost, but we stayed downtown a couple of days, so didn't shuttle all the way to the airport.

Just got off the Solstice in Concierge. The only perks we cared about were deck location and the special boarding line. Got the location, but due to a huge mess in Vancouver's Canada Place (3 ships, ~10,000 people, boarding in one day) the special boarding was out the window.

I agree the other enticements are not worth it. We did like our higher location aft, however.

My thoughts are in the FWIW category, but I would just make sure there are only cabins above and below, as the few feet difference in elevation above the waterline is not going to change the view very much. Lower is more stable generally, if that is of concern.

That being said, we are sailing on Solstice to Alaska next month and chose aft balcony cabins on Deck 9 (cabins above and below, wake and 180 degree rear views). I am aware they are raked back a bit from the stern and are not covered, but the broader view is worth it to us.

Everything is relative.

We were in Estonia a few years ago, and our friends took us to the "women's beach." We had long pants, long sleeved tops and a light rain jacket over the top (we live in the Rocky Mountains, BTW) and were quite comfortable. When we arrived at the beach, indeed, both women and children were sunbathing in the dunes in the nude. I commented about how tough these folks must be to forego clothes in that weather (was in the upper-50's - mid-June). The return comment (from our Swedish hosts) "The sun is out."

Everything is relative.:)

What sad news. Don made so many friends during his and Betsy's travels simply by being Don, and he touched so many here on CC who never had the pleasure of meeting him in person.

Betsy, may all the kind words and thoughts from your and Don's cruise family support you now and give you comfort during this difficult time. Our prayers are with you and your family.

Tarmo & Kay Sutt

The closet in the PH is MUCH larger than in the balcony cabin (guessing - ~4-5' deep by ~10-12' long), but unless you are a serious over-packer, the space in the balcony cabin is adequate. We had a PH on Marina (cabins essentially identical to Riviera) on a TA (16 days) and the clothes we brought filled only a fraction (maybe 1/6) of the closet. But that's us. I hate dragging luggage through airports and don't mind doing laundry, so we brought a rolling carry-on and a 26" checked bag each on that trip. I could have (and have since) brought considerably less and still been entirely fine.

I agree, if your itinerary is shorter or more port-intensive, the smaller cabin is adequate, but the larger PH cabin and butler service are a true luxury on a longer, more leisurely trip.

Wayne, I'm enjoying your jokes and thoughts-of-the-day (along with your commentary about the cruise and the ports, of course). I can't imagine having 180 jokes and sayings, though! I can barely remember three or four of each. Were they part of your cruise preparation, or are you wiling some of your time on the internet looking for new material?

Happy New Year to you Andy! Thanks for your ongoing good work during 2015 for your CC family. We appreciate you!

Happy New Year & thanks to all the CC'ers who took time to post during the year as well. The knowledge base, and the kindness, among this group is truly amazing.

Happy New Year, and I pray for a better 2016, worldwide, than we saw in 2015, for our sakes, and for all the wonderful folks we've met onboard and around the world.

And thanks to Oceania too! I personally am so grateful for the ability to see so many parts of the world I only dreamed of as a child and never believed I'd have the opportunity to see.

Best wishes for a WONDERFUL trip to you all.

Glad you're having a 'meet/greet' party pre-cruise. I remember the excitement and energy of the party before the initial Marina cruise (where we first met Don & Betsy). I can only imagine what you all will experience this time, knowing you're meeting some new -and hopefully a few long-time - friends.

Bon Voyage, all. Enjoy the adventure of a lifetime!

We've only sailed X's Solstice and Ruby Princess, but I prefer Solstice. We had a 'mini-suite' which is comparable to the standard verandah on Solstice - standard verandah cabins on Ruby are considerably smaller. I also felt very 'nickel and dimed' on Ruby, not so much on Solstice. I didn't like the layout of Ruby (circuitous routes to several areas), but since you are apparently looking at sailing a different class of ship, that is not a relevant comparison.

I also found the smoking (and the resulting smell) on Ruby to be far more noticeable than on Solstice.

Food was a bit better on Solstice, IMHO.

I also found Ruby to be much louder than Solstice, and while the idea of MUTS is fun, it was so loud we seldom spent much time around the pool because of the noise level.

Overall, I think the two lines are pretty comparable, but they appeal to a slightly different demographic. I wouldn't turn down another Princess cruise, but if Celebrity offered a similar itinerary, I would choose X.

I agree. The food is generally very good, but you must remember you're still on a ship serving from 700 to 1,250 people 3 meals a day in multiple venues, plus snacks, not a 5-star restaurant on land serving one meal a day to a couple hundred customers.

The "feel" of the ship is what makes it worth the price difference for me. The quality of service and product is simply better than the mass market lines, and I appreciate the lack of 'nickel & diming' on O. I find the intimate size of the ships to encourage more interaction among passengers. And I've found the folks who cruise Oceania to be generally wonderful! They tend to skew older than the mass market lines, and definitely more affluent, but they are also typically well travelled, adventurous and outgoing.

If your friends are avid cruisers, they will probably like Oceania. Will it become their 'go to' cruise line? Only they can decide.

Yes! DH won't have to pack extra shoes, shirt, suit, etc.

We have cruised on Oceania for years and it's not a problem there at all. People tend to dress for dinner, especially in the MDR. Hope X has a similar response from people. We've seen most people dress well aboard X when in the MDR, so hopefully this will just make life easier for everyone.

That being said, I don't really care what others wear as long as they are clean and respectful of others sensibilities (muscle shirts, shabby jeans, short-shorts, etc. at dinner - ICK!).

Don & Betsy, have a wonderful cruise!!!!!!

Thanks all! This helps. My friend is interested in joining us on a cruise, and I'm trying to help him make a decision.

I've not sailed X in a couple years and a quick perusal of the Celebrity website didn't reveal an answer for my question, so I knew the CC community would respond.

Can someone tell me what the daily gratuity onboard Solstice is currently? And if one is traveling solo, is the gratuity 1x or 2x?

Thanks for your patience with my laziness.

We sailed Ruby Princess last January and found one pool area essentially unusable due to the LOUD!!!! MUTS presentations. However, we found the second pool area essentially unusable due to the LOUD!!!! music.

It's not the MUTS I object to, its the volume.

I understand your concerns about planning for others. However, I agree that 'do it yourself' is not only possible, but preferable in Barcelona. Getting from the airport downtown is very easy (taxi, bus or metro). And, yes, the cost will likely be incrementally lower if you diy. The suggestions given above are all valid - all the hotels mentioned are wonderful. Eurostar Grand Marina is at the pier and at the ocean end of Las Ramblas. A taxi will only be a few euros from hotel to ship, which you will see from the hotel - just in a different area of the marina so walking isn't really possible.

The HoHo is a great way to spend a day (and it stops just in front of the Eurostar Grand Marina), but with 8 of you a private guide could be a real bargain - assuming you all want to do essentially the same things.

We stayed about a half block off Las Ramblas the last time we were in Barcelona, and it was very quiet just a few steps off the main street. (Stayed in a boutique hotel near La Boqueria market - turned out we were just across the street from a beautiful church - that served the homeless. We were concerned at first, but we had no problems at all - just a little 'local color.' We had a good laugh and loved the hotel!)

There are several very good travel books on Barcelona. Get one, do some research and 'go for it!' You have plenty of time, and the preparation for a trip is almost as much fun as being there, IMHO.

Whatever you decide, enjoy Barcelona. It is one of our favorite European cities. The art, food, history and friendly people are a very special experience.

Sorry you lost your Israel port stops. I would have been sad too.

In 2013 we were on a Suez Canal cruise that spent time in both Israel and in Egypt (Luxor). We managed to keep Israel, although it was touch and go due to troubles there, but we lost Luxor. I too was very sad. However, we met many wonderful people on the cruise, we were treated very well by ship's crew, and we made the best of the situation.

Will I ever be back to Luxor? Don't know. I just keep reminding myself I'm SO LUCKY to be able to see so MANY things in the world a middle-class kid in 1970 never thought possible.

I find my list of things to see/experience gets longer as my time to see them dwindles. Therefore, I just try to be positive when cruise itineraries change, as they often seem to these days. Being "pissed," as someone called it earlier in this thread, only serves to ruin the rest of the cruise. Try to keep your head high and a smile on your face. Or, if that doesn't work, imagine if Israel hadn't been cancelled and someone from onboard (maybe not even you) was hurt or killed during the stop. Now THAT would ruin the cruise - for everyone - and you would all blame Celebrity for not taking security seriously enough. It's a no-win situation all the way around. Acting on the conservative side is, most certainly, the safest for everyone. I have to believe you will all think this once you are over the shock and sense of loss.

Agree with S & J. The views fore and aft through the canal locks are amazing. Even though you know what is happening, watching a loaded freighter rise above your level in the lock ahead is just astonishing!

We were lucky enough to have booked one of the cabanas (which no longer exist) on the top deck, fore, and we had a real party the day we traversed the canal. Lots of folks stopped by for a look and a visit (O had closed off all the unoccupied cabanas - only two occupied that day - so people had little opportunity to take photos from the highest point on the ship facing forward). I remember one gentleman who came by a second time in the afternoon because he'd tried to download his photos and lost them. He was so sad and apologetic (and such a sweet man!) we pulled up a chair and told him to stay as long as he liked. He changed it for a stool, which he pulled in front of the rail, under the raked windscreen, and took photos and smiled happily for a couple hours. What a fun memory for us all.

Oh, and if you go, remember to take clothes you don't mind getting wet. It rains there A LOT!!! Think having buckets of warm water dumped over your head continuously for 30 minutes at a time. Living in the Southwest desert, as we do, that was also pretty special!

We didn't just complete this cruise, but took it two years ago, also aboard Regatta.

This is definitely a worthwhile cruise! The Panama Canal is an amazing feat of engineering, especially when you consider it is 100 years old and still functions for over 95% of the world's shipping traffic. The new locks were still under construction when we went through, but they are very near completion now, I believe, and it would be wonderful to see how they will function.

Some of the ports of call were better than others, but if we weren't really interested we simply stayed aboard, and the crew took excellent care of us. My favorite stop was Costa Rica, where we booked a private tour into the jungle and a the 'treetop' walk. The people and food of Costa Rica were wonderful, and the tour of the jungle was amazing. (There was a zipline tour in the same area available, but I can't imagine screaming through the jungle and missing the amazing things we saw on the walk at ground level).

We did book a PH for this cruise, which made it really comfortable. We made many new friends onboard, and even entertained them a couple times in the cabin. The butler service was really helpful and, at least for us, luxurious.

If you are interested, I definitely suggest you book. Oceania is great, we loved the intimate atmosphere of Regatta (which has been updated since we were last aboard), and this cruise is fairly leisurely, making it an interesting and restful vacation, despite the number of ports.

As a side note, we sailed through the Suez Canal the next year aboard Nautica, and the contrast with the Panama Canal was really enlightening.

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful next cruise!

I've been searching recently for 'our next cruise' (after a May, 2016 cruise to Alaska aboard Solstice). I'm having a hard time finding one that suits us both. So my 'problem' is not cancelling, but finding a product I'm excited about booking.

I wonder if part of my problem is boredom with cruising, the rapidly increasing costs vs. declining quality (according to many CC posts on multiple lines), my increasing age, or if the planning part is getting to me. Like several others here, I do all the planning. DH loves to get on the plane and take part, but isn't really interested until then. Stress? Well maybe, but I tend to plan a year, or more, in advance, and I enjoy the learning process which takes place during that planning phase, so the stress is pretty minor. The last cruise we took I was pretty unhappy with the overpopulation of cruise ships in ports (now, admittedly that was the Carribean in January - not my choice, a group cruise my husband really enjoyed), so maybe that one 'so-so' experience is still resonating. The Alaska cruise we booked has ended up with a total of 12 people joining us, so while it will be fun, guess who will be doing most of the planning? (That is definitely a source of stress!)

Anyway, at least right now, I seem to be having a hard time getting excited about ANY next cruise.

First choose the 'Celebrity' thread from the list of cruise lines, just as you do to look at this thread. At the top of the list of threads you will see the "Sticky" threads marked in red. These are topics so often discussed, the moderators of the site simply made them a dedicated thread. There is one there for cabin reviews in an Excel format. Here is the link to that thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=911018

We were in an aft cabin on Deck 9, and loved it! The verandah is not covered, but the aft of the ship slopes in, and we found it to be no trouble. If you want the privacy of a covered verandah, you may want another location. Other than that, the cabins are identical to other 'verandah' cabins. We loved watching the 180 degree views and the wake from the ship. In fact, we loved it so much we booked the same cabin for our upcoming 2016 Alaska cruise for the whole family (5 cabins - which will be fun since the verandah dividers can be removed, so we can continue the party for the whole group on one big verandah - with some rules regarding hours, of course).

You will find some complain about these cabins because of soot from the stacks - but we experienced no such issue during our last cruise. Some have complained they are a long walk from elevators - I like to think it just helps to burn a few more calories:D. A big plus - since you are at the end of the hall, it is very quiet - no noisy folks walking past at all hours.

Whatever you decide, enjoy your cruise!