Semi-live from the Solstice | Mexican Riviera, Oct 22-29

[Mvanryn1]

Thank you for this!  Embarking on same itinerary on the 29th. 

 

Its been 4 years since I cruised and I am wondering about actually happens when we get to the ship to embark.  We have express passes on our phone and a specific time appointment for a "wellness check".  I am curious - What does that entail?  If we arrive early, do we have to wait for our appointment time to board?  Thank you in advance for any information on the embarkation process!

[OrcaGirl]

Okay, a slightly more fulsome recap of last night, but with the caveat that my memories may not be trustworthy.

 

Dinner was in the MDR again. Same table, same waitstaff, no reservation, no wait.

 

The pomegranate mojito was delicious. The asparagus salad with goat cheese and white balsamic dressing was good, and the Fox’s butternut squash soup with caramelized apples had her planning to recreate it upon our return home.

 

 

The rigatoni was perhaps just a smidge too al dente for my taste, but the sauce and prosciutto and mushrooms were yummy.

 

 

But the tiramisu was [chef’s kiss emoji].

 

 

After dinner we hustled to the theatre, but honestly, it wasn’t worth the blisters. The comedian was old-school, and jokes about how all wives are sex-withholding nags and all husbands are whipped (with a side of “isn’t it so stupid to be ‘woke’”) just aren’t our thing, so we skedaddled out of the theatre and straight to the ice bar.

 

I won’t say that was a mistake, because fun was had and many delicious beverages were consumed, but wow do I regret not pacing myself. 

 

We ordered the martini flight to share, and I’m going to assume we were being hilarious and charming because the bartender then made us two medium-sized martinis on the house. (TBH the bar was really quiet and I think she was bored. Or maybe we were being loud and annoying and giving us something new to drink would shut us up for a few minutes to give her some peace.) AND THEN we somehow thought it was a good idea to each order a final full-size martini to end the night.

 

 

 

 

Honestly I’m impressed we made it back to our cabin in one piece. Or two one-pieces? You know what I mean. I’m 95% positive I left a good tip but will be going back with cash money tonight just in case.

 

Moral of the story: martinis are awesome, but maybe we should have stuck with sharing the flight and saved the rest for another night.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by OrcaGirl
Removing video that didn’t load

[OrcaGirl]

2 hours ago, Mvanryn1 said:

Thank you for this!  Embarking on same itinerary on the 29th. 

 

Its been 4 years since I cruised and I am wondering about actually happens when we get to the ship to embark.  We have express passes on our phone and a specific time appointment for a "wellness check".  I am curious - What does that entail?  If we arrive early, do we have to wait for our appointment time to board?  Thank you in advance for any information on the embarkation process!

I remember getting an email about a wellness check, but not a wellness check itself. Nor were we ever asked to show our proof of vaccination. 

 

We needed to show our Xpress passes (phone was fine) and ID, but check-in seemed way faster than on Norwegian.

 

Our flight was late as was the transfer bus so we missed our selected check-in time by an hour but no one asked or cared. But I’m not sure of what happens if you arrive early.

[jaapie]

We were on the October 1 sailing. Our check in time was 11:30-noon. We arrived at the terminal at 10:45 and were on the ship by 11. Absolutely no lines to board. Perhaps because there were only 1,650 passengers on our sailing.

No one asked to look at our CDC vaccination cards.  

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, Mvanryn1 said:

"wellness check"

First I've seen of this.  Is this part of the standard boarding process?

[OrcaGirl]

After last night’s martini shenanigans, I thought I’d sleep like a log but alas I tossed and turned and just had a rough night. 

 

I left the Fox behind to rest while I grabbed a chocolate babka and coffee at Cafe al Bacio (from the same bartender from the ice bar last night; she took one look at me and laughed and said it wasn’t her fault 🤣) and then a Mexican eggs Benedict in the buffet.

 

Eventually it was time to find the gangplank and meet our shore excursion. We had selected the Puerto Vallarta Beach Escape with a 9:30am meeting time.

 

It was a ~30 min bus ride to resort, and then another ~20 min sitting in an idling bus at the gate while we waited for… I don’t know what? The resort to agree to let us in? It was weird, and there was waaaaaaay too much coughing from a few other passengers for our anxiety levels. (I think we were the only ones wearing masks.)

 

Finally we were allowed to pull in and disembark. A bit more semi-organized chaos as we all shuffled into the lobby, picked up our welcome cocktail, and waited (too long) for an intro speech by the resort staff that absolutely could have been covered by the bus host and by handing out a little paper map of the resort. There was an optional upcharge to be allow to sit in the club area and dine at its ‘exclusive’ restaurant; if I’d had that information from the beginning I might have gone for it.

 

The beach was lovely, the waves were crashing, and the lounge chairs were a bit hard to find in the shade but we did eventually snag two chairs and a staff dude came by and readjusted our umbrella perfectly.

 

The pina coladas from the pool bar were delightful and the perfect not-too-boozy hair of the dog (or “eating bitey dog hair” as the husband of the Fox messaged her), and open from the time we arrived. The Fox stuck with water because she is far more sensible than me. I had read another review over on the Mexican Riviera forum that said no alcohol was served before 11am, but that wasn’t our experience.

 

We grabbed lunch at the beach bar at the far end of the resort — not the best Mexican resort food I’ve had, not the worst. The taquitos were especially good. But alas no guacamole.

 

After a sort-of nap and half-assed attempt at showering and drying off, it was time to meet our group and head back to the Solstice.

 

Random observations:

 

Other than a few windtorn fabric signs, no sign of the hurricane in the little bit of the area we saw from the bus.

 

It’s a bit weird that the main restaurant that’s included with the excursion serves breakfast until noon, closes for an hour and then reopens for lunch at 1pm… 

 

Vendors were present but not aggressive. The Fox bought a lovely beach cover-up and some vanilla.

 

If you’re gonna watch a show on your tablet on the beach (or bus), have the basic courtesy of wearing earphones. I want to listen to the waves, not your show.

 

You don’t get to say that your resort has a Starbucks if it’s a “we proudly serve Starbucks coffee” situation. Let me earn stars or GTFO.
 

(photos aren’t loading for me right now, will try to add them later.)

[OrcaGirl]

Photos from the morning/afternoon: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by OrcaGirl
Removing duplicate photo

[LinnieRed]

1 hour ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

Eventually it was time to find the gangplank and meet our shore excursion. We had selected the Puerto Vallarta Beach Escape with a 9:30am meeting time.

 

It was a ~30 min bus ride to resort, and then another ~20 min sitting in an idling bus at the gate while we waited for… I don’t know what? The resort to agree to let us in? It was weird, and there was waaaaaaay too much coughing from a few other passengers for our anxiety levels. (I think we were the only ones wearing masks.)

Do you know what the name of the resort was?

[wikoffclan]

35 minutes ago, LinnieRed said:

Do you know what the name of the resort was?

The Shore Excursion page lists it as:

Marival Emotions Resort & Spa, a location in front of a beautiful beach in Nuevo Vallarta.

[OrcaGirl]

2 hours ago, wikoffclan said:

The Shore Excursion page lists it as:

Marival Emotions Resort & Spa, a location in front of a beautiful beach in Nuevo Vallarta.

What she said! 👍

 

 

[OrcaGirl]

More pictures: 

 

 

 

 

 

[lakegirl16]

@OrcaGirl How's the internet been?  I'm going to need to work some when I am on in December.  Mainly just checking emails.  Thanks.

[Seniorsailors]

Thanks so much for this wonderful review. I sail Nov. 26 same itinerary, and can’t wait for my first Celebrity cruise.

[Daniel16399]

47 minutes ago, lakegirl16 said:

@OrcaGirl How's the internet been?  I'm going to need to work some when I am on in December.  Mainly just checking emails.  Thanks.

The internet works perfectly for emails, and it works well for streaming video and music. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wifi.

[OrcaGirl]

12 hours ago, lakegirl16 said:

@OrcaGirl How's the internet been?  I'm going to need to work some when I am on in December.  Mainly just checking emails.  Thanks.

Other than the glitch on the first sea day, it’s been adequate… we’ve got the ‘premium’ package. I’m finding that the speed comes and goes. I haven’t been able to use video on Skype or FaceTime, and haven’t tried Teams yet, but audio calls via the above have gone through fine. 
 

I’m posting videos to IG but they take a bit longer to post.

 

and the wifi doesn’t work at all on our balcony.

 

im supposed to be doing some remote work and will report back on how that goes *if* I can actually convince myself to do it.

[steveontheseas]

I was on this ship 2 weeks ago, and found that WiFi speed is highly dependent on your location. My cabin happens to be in a good location but the closer to hallway the better.  The best speed I found on actually in the Sky lounge

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, steveontheseas said:

I was on this ship 2 weeks ago, and found that WiFi speed is highly dependent on your location. My cabin happens to be in a good location but the closer to hallway the better.  The best speed I found on actually in the Sky lounge

 

I've found that true on many of the ships.    I always look in the hallway to see where the router is located on the wall or ceiling and try to get as close as possible in my room.

[PTC DAWG]

Nice review, looks like y’all are having fun.  

[pickle11]

41 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I've found that true on many of the ships.    I always look in the hallway to see where the router is located on the wall or ceiling and try to get as close as possible in my room.

How much closer can you get?  

[Jim_Iain]

6 hours ago, pickle11 said:

How much closer can you get?  

Probably 15-20 feet.  Which I've found on many of the ship to improve performance by about 50% with a poor signal strength.   It also allows one to select a different channel that is not as busy.  I usually bring a wifi extender  and  place is directly on the wall as the door  closest to the direction of the hallway router. 

[phoenix_dream]

One thing I learned the hard way is if you have really bad reception in your cabin, you can report it to the IT guys and they can put a booster (or whatever the technical term is) in your cabin.  They don't do this without a lot of convincing, so plead your case if need be.  We had to do it once, and it significantly improved our reception.  It is very true that some cabins are closer to the "whatever the term is" technical thingies and get better reception than others.

[lakegirl16]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Probably 15-20 feet.  Which I've found on many of the ship to improve performance by about 50% with a poor signal strength.   It also allows one to select a different channel that is not as busy.  I usually bring a wifi extender  and  place is directly on the wall as the door  closest to the direction of the hallway router. 

What kind of an extender do you use?  Thanks!

 

[OrcaGirl]

Catching up…

 

Day 4, evening

 

After returning from the beach excursion, there were showers and naps and rehydration. 

 

We didn’t feel like peopling, so we had dinner in an empty section of the buffet. It was very very good.

 

 

The Fox was fading so she went back to the cabin, and I checked out the Broken Strings production show. It… wasn’t my favourite. It felt like a mash-up of Once and Choir of Man, a jukebox musical with the loosest of plots. On entertainment quality, I prefer Norwegian’s Broadway shows.

 

 

 

I stopped at the casino bar for a G&T to take back to the room, and heard the casino host announce that everyone was getting $5 free slot play. So I stuck around 10 minutes until 8pm and tried my luck on my favourite fish slot game. I went up a few bucks but then lost it all promptly.

 

 

Upon returning to the cabin, I peer-pressured the Fox into coming down to the casino to use her free $5 since it didn’t roll over to the next day.

 

I encouraged her to pick a game that spoke to her. That turned out to be the Wheel of Fortune game, and a couple of spins later she hit a bonus and walked away with $77! Not bad for her first time playing slots.

 

 

[OrcaGirl]

Okay, the problem with having too much fun is I forget to take notes on what we did and saw, and that makes writing a recap of the day hard…. 🤪

 

It was a beautiful morning in Cabo. We grabbed some coffee/tea and sat out on the balcony for a bit.

 

 

 

At 8am on the dot literally hundreds of boats started racing past the ship. We later found out that it was a sport fishing regatta. Looked fun. 

 

Of the three ships in Cabo, Solstice was anchored closest to El Arco and we got lovely views from the top deck on our way to breakfast. We could even hear the sea lions barking during breakfast.

 

 

 

We had booked the ‘Chileno Bay Deluxe Snorkel’ excursion, which met in the theatre. They escorted us to our own tender and then walked us straight to the catamaran. Spoiler: we had a great time, the staff were great, no complaints EXCEPT for the use of the word deluxe in the title. The catamaran was seaworthy and not over-packed, but it was not deluxe. 

 

 

 

 

But still super fun and I would still recommend it, just know that you’re not going to be laying out on the front webbing as the waves tickle your feet.

 

I wasn’t feeling 100% confident with the conditions (slightly choppy) so I stayed on board. The Fox thoroughly enjoyed her snorkel experience, and saw many many cool fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the drinks were flowing, and the provided snacks (tortillas, salsas and some ham-and-cheese buns that were waaaaaay too delicious) were lovely. 

 

 

And then the music starts. I’ll spare you the video (but it’s on my IG Stories) but when I’m a couple drinks in and some completely-out-of-place country songs from my formative years come on, I’m gonna get a little rowdy. I’m singing along to Alan Jackson songs that I haven’t heard since I left the farm more than 25 years ago. You can take the girl out of the county, etc.

 

 

I also ended up bonding with a lovely Irish couple over our shared love of Garth Brooks, so that was fun. 🥰

 

After we returned to the dock, the Fox and I wandered the shops and did a little souvenir shopping. I was still quite tipsy, but she did an excellent job of enabling only the necessary purchases: a new sunhat and a pretty spiny and sparkly wind thingy for my mom. 
 

 

 

We grabbed a tender back to the ship, and plopped ourselves near the pool until sailaway.

 

 

 

 

Quick dinner in the buffet, and then we finally stopped by the library. The Fox was impressed by the fantasy selection, we were both displeased by some shelve labelling errors.

 

 

 

Then to the evening show, illusionist Andrew Lee. TBH I’m not a fan of performers who have a whole long intro video telling me how awesome they are. Just come out and be awesome. The show was okay, but not the best illusionist I’ve seen at sea. 
 

 

 

 

After that it was to bed. No more hijinks for us.

 

 

Random observations:

 

Our tender to shore was operated by the Cabo marina, and one of our fellow passengers got hugely offended that the staff asked for tips. Given what cruising costs vs what these folks make, I’ve got no issue with any tourism-based staff asking for tips. 

 

I wish Celebrity put the staff’s country of origin flag on their name tags, not just the country name. My eyesight has gone to 💩 the last few years, but I like knowing whether a ‘terima kasih’ or ‘selamat po’ is the appropriate thank you. I had to squint real hard this morning to offer an ‘asante sana’ to a waiter from Tanzania, but it ended with him giving me several recommendations of lesser-known areas in his country to visit next year.

[OrcaGirl]

Day 6 - at sea, morning/afternoon

 

Okay, wow, this has been a day and it’s not even over.

 

There was another time change last night, so I woke up before the cafe was even open but popped down to get me and the Fox some caffeinated beverages. Beautiful sunrise, but windy enough that the outside lower decks were closed.

 

 

We had a lazy morning, chilling in our room, doing a bit of remote work, and eventually heading to the captain’s talk on navigation. (My husband’s first real job was hand-drawing marine navigation charts, and then installing some of the first computerized navigation systems on ships, so yeah, he’s old. He also isn’t on CruiseCritic… 🤣)

 

 

 

Then it was time for the Fox to try out the S.A.F.E. archery. She previously trained in combat archery, but the ‘safety whiffle’ wasn’t exactly something she was used to. She nailed her first shot and got a big round of applause. But alas missed her second and third shots. We’ll blame the rocking of the boat. Apparently she can claim a prize tomorrow; anyone know what the prizes typically are?

 

 

 

We headed back to the casino, where, in an act worthy of last night’s illusionist, I turned $20 into one cent in the blink of an eye.

 

 

 

Lunch was really good, but it seems the ship is celebrating Thanksgiving every day? But not complaining, that stuffing was AMAZING! (The butter chicken was good too, but I prefer the Indian food on Norwegian.)

 

 

And then it was volleyball time. My 6’5” volleyball playing husband will be so jealous he missed out. We watched the last of the qualifying rounds, but really, I was here for officers in uniforms in the pool. I’m a simple girl with simple needs.

 

 

The officer intros were hilarious and they all seemed like really cool people.

 

 

 

 

But alas we had to ogle and skedaddle, as it was almost time for Deal or No Deal. As a ‘classic’ captain’s club member, I got five cards for the price of four, and we split them between the Fox and myself.

 

 

And then… **** my name got picked. I have anxiety and hate public speaking, it’s like flames on the side of my face, breathing, breathless, heaving breaths, etc.

 

 

So yeah, I’m shaking but I head up there, pick my briefcases, don’t embarrass myself too much I don’t think.

 

 

I’ll spare you the boring details but it came down to two briefcases: $300 and $1,000. The banker offered me $585 to walk away, and apparently the Fox was gesturing at me to take it but I didn’t see her and turned it down. DANG! My briefcase contained the $300. But that’s like $500 Canadian right? 🤣

 

 

We headed to the ABBA trivia next, but honestly I was still shaking from Deal or No Deal so we listened but didn’t play. I expected more factual ABBA trivia (which my husband is the expert in, not me) but it was just ‘name that song’ style.

 

When I claimed my prize money at the casino, we found out that we also won $25 in slot play, so we’ll head back tonight to see how much trouble we can get into…