Mid-cruise report aboard Solstice

[misha1]

2 hours ago, mauimary said:

We are on this cruise now and have a 7yr old grandson with us.  He loves Brent Nixon nature lectures.  He is not bored.  He has taken advantage of having the heated outdoor swimming pool practically to himself.  We have done some excursions too.  There are also teens on board. We have seen a group that have eaten together and attended the show.  We have seen this nice group in the coffee shop too. This is the second time he has been to Alaska with us. 

So...is Mr. Nixon on Solstice?  I heard he moved to Equinox

[mauimary]

Govt of Canada does not require it. 

[mauimary]

1 hour ago, misha1 said:

So...is Mr. Nixon on Solstice?  I heard he moved to Equinox

No he and his wife are very much onboard the Solstice. We have listened to three of his lectures so far.  He narrated out to Dawes Glacier yesterday.
Somebody was mistaken that he was on the Eclipse. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by mauimary

[Northern Aurora]

15 hours ago, OysterD said:

That will be me in a few months. I will not be wearing a mask and I will most definitely be holding a drink while in the theatre! 🍸 🍹 

 

You are obviously in the minority, as you stated, so to expect everyone else to change their behaviour to appease you is actually the definition of selfish. 

 

I will bite my tongue and not say exactly what I'm thinking, let's try and keep this amicable lol. However, I don't appreciate being called selfish and disrespectful for simply trying to enjoy myself on the first holiday I'll have been on in 4 years. Its frustrating enough that we will probably have to go through the hassle of getting tested in a foreign country before we board (we're hoping that requirement is dropped before we sail), but if its a requirement obviously we will have to. However, we will most certainly not voluntarily wear flimsy masks everywhere on the ship just to appease a handful of people who are still scared of catching covid. 

 

I say all this in an effort to as nicely as possible, request that those with similar views as you just stop and think about how everyone else feels. I don't want to be on holiday with people looking at me like I'm some sort of leper just because I'm not wearing a mask. It's ridiculous. If 95%+ of people are not bothering to wear masks, then maybe the <5% who are wearing them need to understand and accept that there's nothing wrong with that. 

 

We are all paying a lot of money to go on holiday and to enjoy ourselves, and for those who aren't retired it may well be our only break from work all year. After not having to wear masks anywhere in our country for the last 4 or 5 months, don't expect me to voluntarily do so for 2 weeks while on holiday! There shouldn't be any animosity between those who do and don't wear masks when not required. If you're genuinely that concerned about catching covid, and I understand some people might still be, then maybe cruising isn't right for you. But you're just as likely to catch it at home in the supermarket or restaurant etc. 

 

I am posting from the Solstice and we are those who wear masks in the elevators and so forth.  Since we are in a suite we spend time in Michael’s Club and rarely attend shows in the theater.   My fully vaccinated and boosted husband experienced a break-through case of Covid on the Eclipse in April.  While we found that Celebrity treated him well, he was isolated in a ocean view stateroom while I remained in our lovely, large suite.  Folks who opt not to wear masks need to understand that if they develop Covid their vacation will change dramatically and essentially end.  Just an observation…..

[Northern Aurora]

1 hour ago, mauimary said:

No he and his wife are very much onboard the Solstice. We have listened to three of his lectures so far.  He narrated out to Dawes Glacier yesterday.
Somebody was mistaken that he was on the Eclipse. 

 

I am also posting from the Solstice.  Both Brent Nixon and his wife are indeed on the Solstice.  But they were on the Eclipse (not the Equinox) in April.  We were on the April 23rd Vancouver to Hawaii cruise and they definitely were onboard on that cruise.  Since my husband experienced a breakthrough case of Covid we left the ship in Honolulu on May 4 so I don’t know if they were also on the May 4th return to Vancouver.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

3 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

Folks who opt not to wear masks need to understand that if they develop Covid their vacation will change dramatically and essentially end.

 

Actually it's folks who go anywhere outside their home, even when masked. I got COVID after flying back to NYC after being home for Christmas. I had a KN95 mask on the entire time. The flight was the only place besides my parents' house - where everyone was negative - I would have been exposed. Wore the mask. Still got it.

[Northern Aurora]

7 hours ago, slcutcruiser said:

I could use some advice here. I just booked the holiday cruise over Christmas on the Celebrity Solstice. We have 3 adults and 3 children. The children will be 9, 16 and 13 when we cruise. I have recently read a lot of people saying the kids will probably get bored. That's obviously not what I want. This is the only cruise available that still had rooms left departing out of CA around Christmas so it's what we booked. We still have time to cancel if need be. Can you tell me if you saw any other teens? I know there is an arcade but it costs extra, there is a small teen lounge but it doesn't look like much. Does anyone have thoughts or experiences? Thanks

 

While Celebrity is not a Royal Caribbean experience with a number of families, there will indeed be families on board.  I am on the Solstice now on an Alaska itinerary which attracts multi-generational families, and there are definitely teens onboard.  I saw a group of about 8 or 9 teens yesterday who definitely were not related and they looked like they were having a great time on some sort of scavenger hunt.  Over the holidays there also will be a number of multi-generation families with a number of teens and tweens.

 

[lovecruzin]

2 hours ago, mauimary said:

Govt of Canada does not require it. 

If you are referring to my post re testing…

 

[misha1]

2 hours ago, mauimary said:

No he and his wife are very much onboard the Solstice. We have listened to three of his lectures so far.  He narrated out to Dawes Glacier yesterday.
Somebody was mistaken that he was on the Eclipse. 

Yay!

[mauimary]

14 hours ago, lovecruzin said:

If you are referring to my post re testing…

 

Yes I saw this. We all had to take pre embarkation Covid tests because the cruiseline requires it.  But currently if you fly in from another country you do not. That’s why some folks were flying to Canada and then driving to the US from Europe.  The US just recently dropped the testing requirements to fly in. 

[rosiebee]

Thank you for your brilliant review. We are on the Solstice in early September going from Seattle to Vancouver. All your tips and experiences have given us plenty of food for thought. We fly into Seattle from UK staying 3 nights and our only concern now is where we can get our test done before boarding.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

[lovecruzin]

44 minutes ago, mauimary said:

Yes I saw this. We all had to take pre embarkation Covid tests because the cruiseline requires it.  But currently if you fly in from another country you do not. That’s why some folks were flying to Canada and then driving to the US from Europe.  The US just recently dropped the testing requirements to fly in. 

My comment was cruise related, had nothing to do with flying. Not only does the cruise line require the test the GOC does as well. So currently X cant drop the requirement for any cruise that goes to Canada.

 

 

[CruisinNewb]

On 6/21/2022 at 11:53 AM, slcutcruiser said:

I could use some advice here. I just booked the holiday cruise over Christmas on the Celebrity Solstice. We have 3 adults and 3 children. The children will be 9, 16 and 13 when we cruise. I have recently read a lot of people saying the kids will probably get bored. That's obviously not what I want. This is the only cruise available that still had rooms left departing out of CA around Christmas so it's what we booked. We still have time to cancel if need be. Can you tell me if you saw any other teens? I know there is an arcade but it costs extra, there is a small teen lounge but it doesn't look like much. Does anyone have thoughts or experiences? Thanks

 Our very 1st cruise was on Celebrity to Alaska with our daughters who were 11 and 14 at the time. Both of them had a great time. They joined some of the organized kid events and made some friends. The teen lounge isn't anything to write home about nor is the arcade. They enjoyed spending time with other kids their age, the shows and the times we spent in port.

After that cruise we always gave them the option of traveling on Royal Caribbean where there are more kid-centric things to do. They always chose to cruise on Celebrity. 

[CruisinNewb]

Thanks so much @kcmo74 for a great review. Alaska was our first and favorite cruise.

Just for your info, we cruised 6 months after our Alaska cruise on Disney and our kids prefererd  Celebrity to Disney. Our youngest though was 11 at the time and might have different opinions if she was still 4!

 

We liked the bigger cabins and thought the food was better on Disney. The shows were far superior but of course all Disney themed.

 

Hope you enjoy your next cruise as much as you did this one.

[PhunKruz]

Was just looking for some daily schedules (used to be called Celebrity Today, not sure if they still are) and have not found any.  If anyone knows if any of the Alaska ones for this year have been posted, can you point me to them?  And if not, can anyone whose been comment on a) which nights are Evening Chic and b) any other specific schedule items of interest (such as I picked up from this review that you want to be up early for Dawes Glacier sailing).  Thanks!

[Northern Aurora]

19 hours ago, PhunKruz said:

Was just looking for some daily schedules (used to be called Celebrity Today, not sure if they still are) and have not found any.  If anyone knows if any of the Alaska ones for this year have been posted, can you point me to them?  And if not, can anyone whose been comment on a) which nights are Evening Chic and b) any other specific schedule items of interest (such as I picked up from this review that you want to be up early for Dawes Glacier sailing).  Thanks!

 

We always immediately throw away the Celebrity Today and don’t save them.  

 

If you are interested in the Solstice Alaska itinerary then the two Evening Chic nights are the day 2 (day after embarkation and the first sea day) and day 6 (the day after Skagway and second sea day).

[mauimary]

We arrived back in Seattle this am with a Beautiful “Welcome Back view of Mt Rainier in all her glory.   Sunny and gorgeous.  We had a fabulous time even with the not so stellar weather we had this past week.  If didn’t stop us from doing anything and the rain cooperated just when we needed it to. 
 

Our only excursion was to Dawes Glacier in the Tracy Arm Fjord.  It was beautiful and an experience to find our way through the ice.  Occasionally mama seals and their pups were seen floating on the ice.  It was a long ride back to Juneau to meet up with our Mother Ship.  There didn’t seem to be enough seats for all of us so some of us stood most of the way back.  We were the last ones still standing outdoors as long as we could so hence no seats indoors.  
 

We walked around the other two ports Skagway and Ketchikan. 
 

We loved the cruise, waiters in Luminae and our stateroom attendant.  Everyone worked so very hard    We attended everyone of Brent Nixon (Naturalist on Board) lectures.  We have seen him before along with our 11yr old grandson.  He loves his talks and so do we.  His Wife Mary Amanda Fairchild is an amazing speaker as well.  Her talk about the Titanic is great.  

We thought the ship was in great shape even though she had been sitting idle for so long. The staff all worked extra hard doing things to shine her up and get her ready even though that was not a part of their job descriptions. 
 

We were off the ship at 0830 this am and after picking up our car in the Cruisepark we were back to our home in Portland by 1pm.  The week went by incredibly fast.  

Edited June 25, 2022 by mauimary

[itsanita]

Just back from our cruise.  The kids had a great time.  Ate most nights off the adult menu as the kids menu in the main dining is limited.   They too enjoyed the pool, the kid activities and never missed a Brent Nixon talk.