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I’ve been hearing that there will be some cuts to the program but don’t know how true they are. I have asked hosts on recent cruises and they have stated that some changes are coming, but they don’t think it’s going to be as impactful as some of the rumors have suggested. I did hear that comped cruises are going to be limited to 7 - 9 nights and that appears to be happening. Working with a third party for bookings seems to be the way to go.

I’ve been Sapphire since the new tier system, too and had booked 11, 12 night and b2b cruises. Just did a 7 night Mexican Riviera cruise and got a card on day 2 for a free cruise. Went down to future cruises and they told me nothing more than a 9 night Oceanview (have been aqua or concierge on all my past cruises). I did book a 9 night out of Tampa for February 2024 - I have family there and am attending a benchmark birthday in February so the timing was good. This year I started booking with a third party, so emailed them about the booking - they were able to change the cabin to aqua - I am guessing there may be some ability through them to extend to a longer than 9 nights. I understand that the Blue Chip program is going to be introducing changes in July 2023 and the rumors I keep hearing are there will be some cuts. I think the cap of 9 nights indicates one of the changes.

Sailed on Solstice on April 8, Mexican Riviera - was told ship had 2850 passengers, 170 children on board. We did see kids, but the only place they were actually very evident was the Oceanview.

They offered it on Solstice on the April 8 sailing - we attended and enjoyed it.

Thanks for sharing your experiences! We were on the same cruise - I was in a concierge cabin on deck 10, very close to port side aft elevators and my niece and her husband were on deck 9, close to port side forward elevators. They are both teachers, so can only travel during school breaks. I sail solo quite a bit because I usually try to avoid times when there are lots of kids on board. I understand that there were 170 kids on board; I saw several, but it didn’t seem to be overly crowded with kids. S class is one of my favorites; it was the first time Judy and Joe had sailed S class and they fell in love with the ship. We all prefer the traditional style of S or M class to the new E class. Concur on the wonderful service and friendliness of the staff - outstanding! Food was very good and you are correct about the difficulty in finding seating at times in Oceanview. The one odd thing we noted was how cold the solarium was the first couple of days. I’ve sailed quite a bit on Celebrity with various itineraries and this is the first time I’ve experienced that.

So late to this, but was cruising on Solstice. I spent a couple of hours catching up on this review today. I love your live reviews, Jim, thank you for taking the time to share your comments and wonderful pictures!

Love this itinerary, too - thinking about renting a car on Curaçao this time. Where is Advanced Car Rental located - did they pick you up at port? We’re going to be on Equinox in August.

Waiting eagerly for the next review!

Just did a cruise on Equinox - March 9 - that was a partial charter with the Abraham Hicks group. I was told there were about 750 of them on board - I noticed that they used the main theater every day for their events, which meant things like Beyond the Podium took place in Celebrity Central, which was a tight fit at times. However, the Solarium wasn’t as crowded during the day because a lot of passengers were attending meetings. Cafe al Bacio was crazy when it was their coffee break - people lined up past the shops on deck 5.

It was available at the casino bar on Equinox during my February 27, 2023 cruise.

I am so looking forward to another trip report by you - loved your last b2b - especially the secret for keeping Mr. Norwaylady happy - beer samplings! Hope Miami isn’t too crazy, Ft. Lauderdale airport was packed last Saturday.

We laughed about the shrimp being the “Shrimpiest “ we’ve ever seen - they were the smallest ever! I didn’t have the shrimp cocktail as escargot is my favorite - happy to report they were large and delicious!

No testing - just met in Celebrity Central for 9:30, walked off with Jonathan, did facial recognition in terminal, then walked back on the ship.

Your daughter is just adorable!

I’m jealous - won’t be back on Equinox until August!

I can’t remember the name of the house bands or singers - they were ok but not anything that I considered special. I thought Chloe in the Ensemble Lounge was very enjoyable - she did some folk/country/Irish songs and I did make an effort to go to her performances. The second cruise had Van do a classical piano presentation in Celebrity Central - he was excellent. I also enjoyed Kyiv Strings in Ensemble. The presentation of the production dancers on Deck 3 doing Queen was fun also.

First cruise had a psychologist on that spoke on communication - she was very interesting, one of her topics was communicating with Y chromosome people🙂. Peter, the cruise director did a few presentations - a very nice one about Queen Elizabeth, another one with orchestra director Jose about the Beatles, and an interesting summary of what it was like during Covid on the ships along with some funny stories about incidents on ships. The second cruise featured David Fantle who did a four part session on the golden age of Hollywood. I enjoyed all of the sessions on both cruises.

She was feeling much better 48 hours later and able to enjoy the rest of the cruise. Thanks for asking!

Just returned from my first b2b, greatly enjoyed it and would love to repeat the experience. I would like to thank everyone on this forum who offered information on procedures for a b2b - made me feel more comfortable about the sailing. I have sailed on Equinox several times and was happy to see the ship still looks beautiful and well maintained - observed cleaning and polishing going on everywhere at all times - hard working staff. I sailed the first leg solo, then had friends that came for the second leg, one of which shared my cabin. I was fortunate enough to have the same cabin for both legs so did not have to pack anything up at all. I had a concierge cabin on deck 11 aft; the only negative was that it was almost at the end of the hall so it was a long walk back and forth to elevators or stairs! Big shout out to the cabin steward I had on the first leg - Dickson - incredible service and a perfectionist cleaning the room. Lots of cruises and he was the best I’ve ever had. Sadly (for me) he was leaving at the end of the first leg to return home for four months for the birth of his first child and first grandchild for both families. He’s heading to Reflection in July; I would be overjoyed to be lucky enough to have him as a steward again. I did comment with the QR code on what a great representative he was for Celebrity. The second steward was fine, but not exceptional. Dining - I went to the Maitre’d a couple of days before the start of the second cruise - my cabin mate and I had a confirmation for 6 pm traditional dining; the person joining us in a different cabin had linked her sailing to ours but we didn’t have anything indicating she was dining with us and I wanted to confirm that three of us would be dining together. I was given a card with a table number and thought it was resolved. Unfortunately, the first night we came to the dining room there was someone seated at our table. Lots of confusion and we got sent upstairs to deck 4. We were seated and they told us we should just come to deck 4 the following night and we would be seated at one of the four tables there. The next night we went to the hostess at deck 4 who wanted to know why we were there because we had an assigned table on deck 3 - she finally seated us, but told us to report to our regular table the following night. Day 3 we show up to our assigned table and meet our wait staff - day 4 we get there and a party is seated at the table and again, mass confusion. I am now up to three conversations with Webster, the maitre’d and finally they gave us a table that they assured us would be ours. I understand that part of the problem was that they had a charter of approximately 700 people on board, but it was poor organization. As others have mentioned, food in the MDR is not of the same quality as prior cruises. A few dishes were very good (beef tournedos and lamb in phyllo) some were poor (beef bourguignon - toughest beef ever) - disappointing but I was not surprised. Service was not as slow as I’ve been reading about, but it seems they may still be a little understaffed. The night we dined on deck 4 our waiter apparently had no assistant and was visibly stressed. Dined twice in Murano, once solo and once with my friends on the second cruise. Very happy to report service and food was still excellent there, one of the reasons I love Solstice class. One night I dined at Sushi on Five and enjoyed it - had dumplings and their very excellent udon soup; I thought it was very good value for the price and service was fine. I also did the buffet for dinner a couple of nights. I expected very little, based on reports, and was pleasantly surprised. The pasta station was open, so was the grill station which offered cooked to order chicken, fish, and minute steaks. Several assorted casserole type dishes were available (one night eggplant Parmesan, meatballs, a vegetable casserole with squash, onion, tomatoes), a decent salad bar. It was not very busy but there were diners there. Cafe al Bacio is still one of my favorite stops - by day 2 Jayson knew I liked an almond croissant with my cappuccino and had my order a couple of minutes after I sat down - he was another person that I submitted a positive comment card about. Ports - first cruise included St. Kitts, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Antigua. I had visited St. Kitts before so just walked around the port area. Most enjoyable excursion was Karambola excursion on Martinique. I discovered many positive reviews about this company on the Martinique forum and was very happy to confirm it’s as great as described - small group (16), comfortable vehicle, plenty of personal interaction. Second cruise was Grand Cayman and the ABCs, this is the sixth time I’ve done this itinerary so I only did one excursion - a ship excursion that was a sunset sail on a schooner, which we all enjoyed. Perfect weather, music that had recognizable lyrics, an open bar, a few snacks - a fun evening and it was beautiful out on the water. There was a noro outbreak on the second cruise and my cabin mate unfortunately was a victim. We took her down to the hospital facility because she was so sick, they gave her an IV and some meds, quarantined her for 36 hours, and called and checked on her frequently. She was doing well two days later and I was impressed by how compassionate the medical staff was. I just read today that there were 122 passengers diagnosed with noro. They did switch to having staff serving at the buffet a day or so after the outbreak. Happy that I wasn’t a victim, in spite of sharing a cabin with her. I think it may have started on the earlier cruise because a woman warned me not to eat burgers at Mast Grill because she got “food poisoning “ after eating one. The entertainment was similar to other Celebrity cruises - I skipped Elysium (saw it a few times before), ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the woman who did a tribute to Aretha Franklin but I enjoyed her performance very much. Chloe in the Ensemble lounge did some great sets. Loved Beyond the Podium and attended all of the sessions. Spent a lot of time in the Solarium during the day and the casino at night. Overall a very enjoyable and relaxing three weeks! Did walk off at Port Everglades, off the ship by 7:30, and at FLL by 8:05. I had a 10:55 flight and made it with plenty of time to spare. Airport was a zoo with spring breakers coming and going but flight got off on time. Flying out is the only thing I hate about cruising😁 I was surprised I never got a survey for either leg of the cruise but was happy I had submitted positive comments about the two staff members I found exceptional

I am so loving your report! We were on Apex in April and they did move the magic carpet a few times - no tendering on our itinerary, but they offered dining there twice. Loved the train in St. Kitts - a fun ride with copious tropical beverages and beautiful scenery. Also enjoyed your clip of “Umbrella”😁. Thanks for taking the time to share with us!

We did this same tour pre Covid and felt the same way about it - what a waste of time. Our guide ended the tour with a pitch for bigger tips because cruisers didn’t realize how poor Bahamians were.

Usually no one is staffing the casino when you board, but I have gone to guest services and they have issued me a new card with the drink package on it. Not sure if all the ships are doing this. If you wait until casino opens, they will put a sticker on your card and set you up with your free play.

Thanks for sharing - we will be cruising on Solstice on April 8 - I’ve cruised several times on S class, but this will be the first time on Solstice. Will be following this topic with interest!

My first cruise was on Carnival - hated it so much I didn’t cruise for ten years! I have since cruised on NCL, RCL, and Celebrity; found my niche on Celebrity and have six cruises booked with them for 2023. A big plus for me is that the interior of the ship is smoke free.

Yes, you should go! Is this one of the Celebrity Solstice cruises? I’m doing the Mexican Riviera itinerary in April. I spend a lot of my time in the casino, too, but the rest of the time I enjoy my balcony, the solarium, the spa, a cocktail, a cappuccino at Cafe al Bacio - as busy or lazy as you want to be!