Very brief live from the Solstice January 28 - February 4

[mariners]

My plans of writing a live thread for this segment won't work.  I have not paid for the upgrade for the internet and I cannot even get CC to load, let alone sign in and post.  I also cannot access any of our e-mail accounts, airline information, or even the Celebrity website to look at future cruises.  I tried multiple times in the middle of the night, and I still couldn't get the service.  I can, however, get and send text messages, access news websites all over the world, access a different cruise site of which I am a member, and a variety of weather, weekly shopping flyers at home, and some other sites that I really don't care about but wanted to see if they worked.

 

This segment has a totally different vibe than the previous segment.  The passenger count is about 80% of full occupancy according to the crew and officer with whom I spoke.  It’s also a very lively group, and the bars are hopping, and lots of people are enjoying a variety of entertainment.  

 

The crew have been struggling with the massive increase in passengers, but I have already noticed that they are settling into new routines, and I think the frenetic pace and stress levels should improve over the week.  It's unfortunate that there are not more crew onboard as they really do have too large a number of passengers to provide service to and some passengers are very unhappy and are quite vocal.  I have no issue with people vocalizing issues, but I really dislike it when passengers are rude to the crew.  Although I can't stop it from happening, I do let the crew know that they are welcome to have a supervisor speak with me if that is their choice.

 

Food has been hit and miss.  Even though the menu is the same as last week, the presentation, and flavours are different.  Hopefully, the kitchen will also adjust to the larger dining groups.  

 

We are still having a great time.  

 

On a side note, we had a fabulous display of dolphins, and whales (including breaching) on the sail in to Cabos at lunch time today.  What a fabulous welcome!

[natshala]

1 hour ago, mariners said:

My plans of writing a live thread for this segment won't work.  I have not paid for the upgrade for the internet and I cannot even get CC to load, let alone sign in and post.  I also cannot access any of our e-mail accounts, airline information, or even the Celebrity website to look at future cruises.  I tried multiple times in the middle of the night, and I still couldn't get the service.  I can, however, get and send text messages, access news websites all over the world, access a different cruise site of which I am a member, and a variety of weather, weekly shopping flyers at home, and some other sites that I really don't care about but wanted to see if they worked.

 

This segment has a totally different vibe than the previous segment.  The passenger count is about 80% of full occupancy according to the crew and officer with whom I spoke.  It’s also a very lively group, and the bars are hopping, and lots of people are enjoying a variety of entertainment.  

 

The crew have been struggling with the massive increase in passengers, but I have already noticed that they are settling into new routines, and I think the frenetic pace and stress levels should improve over the week.  It's unfortunate that there are not more crew onboard as they really do have too large a number of passengers to provide service to and some passengers are very unhappy and are quite vocal.  I have no issue with people vocalizing issues, but I really dislike it when passengers are rude to the crew.  Although I can't stop it from happening, I do let the crew know that they are welcome to have a supervisor speak with me if that is their choice.

 

Food has been hit and miss.  Even though the menu is the same as last week, the presentation, and flavours are different.  Hopefully, the kitchen will also adjust to the larger dining groups.  

 

We are still having a great time.  

 

On a side note, we had a fabulous display of dolphins, and whales (including breaching) on the sail in to Cabos at lunch time today.  What a fabulous welcome!

Very interesting perspective. Thanks for your post.

[mariners]

We made it home late last night.  The disembarkation from the ship was easy and the ship was cleared early.  

 

Unfortunately, our names, despite the luggage tags and disembarkation information we were given, didn't make it to the list of passengers with airport transfers.  I'm not sure what happened but, in the end, they wrote our names down on a piece of paper, and we were allowed to board the bus. Despite individual arrangements being less expensive, we would choose the option of taking the ship transfer again.  As there were two ships (or more) in port, Uber/taxis/etc. appeared to be backlogged and there were lines of people waiting for their rides.

 

I don't know if it's an ongoing issue, but there were problems at LAX as they did not have enough people for baggage handling.  Our flight was delayed for over an hour after we were onboard as they did not have anyone to load the baggage on the plane.  Luckily, our next flight was also delayed so me made the connection, and quickly cleared Canadian customs and passport control.  Our luggage made it home with us!

 

I will write a more detailed review once I have finished the laundry, paying the bills ... 

 

 

[britestar]

Looking forward to your review. Thank you for posting.