Solstice LIVE (3/18) Suite Review w/ Kid: Mexican Riviera w/ Mini Me

[DaKahuna]

57 minutes ago, cluso said:

Not to hijack, but all the people that responded about Alaska cruises/ cruise lines.  We did a 9 night Celebrity cruise out of Vancouver/and back several years ago as far as Hubbard.  Looking to go again, at least 9 nights.  But we don't care about a covered pool, or entertainment, and don't want to be on a bigger ship than Celebrity S class.  Any suggestions?

 

Celebrity Millennium will be headed to Alaska for the summer again this year. 

 

[GenerationX]

Quick update from Solstice: 

 

Life on Solstice just keeps getting better for Mini Me.

 

She found a cruise duck today!

 

According to the tag, he was found on Carnival Vista last November then brought on Solstice this week.  Gen Z wants to keep his travels and cruise line jumping going by hiding him on MSC Seascape during our cruise in July.  Guess I better get on designing a tag and hashtag when we get home! 
 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. So happy you are having a great time with your daughter! Brings back great memories and hope the same carries with you!

[terrydtx]

On 3/14/2023 at 6:58 PM, GenerationX said:

I respectfully request that the review not be hijacked for debate/commentary about the appropriateness of kids sailing on Celebrity

I love following your cruises, we will be on the Equinox in June with our 12 year-old Granddaughter in a Sky Suite. I would never criticize anyone for bringing their kids or grandkids on a cruise. BTW your Gen Z looks like she is having an amazing time.

[Jim_Iain]

13 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

I also am following the adventure and want to read more of your adventures.  While I hope this this thread returns to its original topic just a comment about Alaska cruises from someone who lives in Alaska.  For hose interested in whales seriously consider an itinerary which includes Icy Strait Point.  And I do not think that any one cruise line is superior for our state.

 

 

You always give such good recommendations.    I have to agree with Icy Straights.     Best whale watching from the ship we have ever seen.   Some were even breaching alongside the tenders. 

 

 

[AnnemarieC76]

@GenerationX

 

 I LOVE your reviews...and I can easily just get lost in them.  My husband and I leave tomorrow to board the Apex on Saturday and I am wrapping up work today but have spent the last hour reading this 🙂   It is wonderful that your mini appreciates the cruise - when my kids were young I  brought them on a few cruises and life got lifey and we did not really vacation for too long...but a few years ago we sorted through the lifey stuff and started  we started sailing on Celebrity (August 2019) they came also but they were already 15 and 22 and they were at stages where they were totally content to just hangout with me and my husband.  After the first Celebrity cruise my husband I were hooked lol! 

Enjoy the time with your mini for sure - after we got through the lifeyness we had gone through and after our first Celebrity cruise I realized how fast time really goes - and then COVID happened and cruises were paused and life moved on - in 2021 I vowed to take a trip once a year with just my two kids - we did Universal just mom and kids in 2021 and 2022 - they even agreed to matching T-shirts bc they knew it was something I had wished I could do with them when they were younger but it had to wait - so where they no longer are too interested in cruising it frees cruise time up for me and my husband and then I get separate vacations with the two that will always be my babies – in May  I am taking them to Cancun - apparently running around an amusement park at 19 and 26 with their mom is no longer as thrilling as lounging by the pool hahaha

My husband and I were on the Beyond in November and loved it and I am so ready to be on the Apex – he doesn’t know it yet but I 100% plan on booking the Apex again for November!

 

Thank you again for your posts – I love tagging along 😊

[KKB]

21 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Well now you’ve opened a can of worms…I just spent a little poolside time sniffing around Princess’s Alaska cruise prices for this summer (feeling like a creepy dude texting his mistress while sitting right next to his wife) and they look a fair bit more reasonable than Celebrity for the weeks I was interested in but were out of budget on Solstice…dare I try another new cruise line?  Dare I broach the subject of adding yet another cruise to my calendar this summer with my office and my husband?

 

Tabling further thought on this one till I’m not 3 mimosas deep!

Celebrity is our fav line but Princess is a fairly close 2nd!

We did Discovery to AK last Sept. Gorgeous ship!

But no Retreat-like areas on Princess ships as of yet. Word is that it's coming soon.

 

[KKB]

@GenerationX GenZ's facial expressions at Petit tell EVERYTHING--LOVE IT!

[KKB]

20 hours ago, tcmagnum said:

Since you brought up adding another cruise this year...

Check out the pricing on the Edge for May 31 - Alaska.

 

I saw a post earlier today about a decent price drop.

Might be worth checking out....

That is NEXT May

[GenerationX]

13 hours ago, MarKay525 said:

We've seen 3 of the LPC shows, and this was our least favorite. The Family and the Cooking Contest have far more animation and we found them much more engaging. (Food has always been delicious, however.)

 

Your outfits are precious, as is your daughter.

 

Hope you have recovered from Catalina and will have fond memories of all of the rest of the trip. (Your itinerary is very unique with just 2 ports of call.)

 

What do you think of the CS bathroom? We were in a CS on Silhouette last month and I hated it - very claustrophobic for me, and I usually don't have that problem.

 

Enjoy your sea days.

I agree about this LPC show. The cooking competition is my favorite. I was also disappointed that they’re now only doing one show/menu for the entire cruise.  They used to do one show for the first half then switch to another for the second half.  I’d go again if I could see a different show but don’t need to do the same one twice.

 

I also agree about the size of the CS bathroom. I could swear it was much bigger in our CS on Millennium.  I thought maybe it was just feeling small because I was spoiled by the royal suite bathroom on Silhouette.  

[GenerationX]

Oh CC, it’s been a rough morning on Solstice. Literally and figuratively.

 

For Mini Me, the struggle was getting out of bed in time for breakfast due to being up till almost midnight on the dance floor with me at the White Party last night.

 

For me, the struggle is due to a weather front that has us facing white caps and swells. I knew I should have done preemptive Dramamine last night.  Poor Gen Z (who fortunately has a sea stomach solid as Gibraltar) has never seen me sea sick and was very concerned. She actually suggested skipping kids club this morning to take care of me. 😭 I assured her I’d be just fine once my meds kicked in.

 

I’m currently nursing a Sprite on a low deck midship watching passengers in far better shape enjoy a cha-cha dance class in the grand foyer.

 

Given my current state, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit the only other rough experience in the cruise thus far: our Bison Expedition excursion in Catalina.

 

On a different day, in different weather, this excursion probably would have been an amazing experience.  As it was, Celebrity probably should’ve cancelled it from the get go.  

 

When we boarded the hummer for the tour, our guide told us he would be going “kind of fast” and that there would be no stops for photo opps because “Celebrity told us the weather forecast changed and we have to try and get you through the tour before the storm gets too bad”. 

 

The first 15-20 minutes of the 2 hour tour was actually pretty fun as we wound our way up into the beautiful mountains of Catalina and got some great views of Solstice.  Our guide/driver was also very nice and entertaining and shared lots of good info about Catalina and the history of the bison on the island.

 

Gen Z’s cruise bestie and her older brother were also on our jeep with their grandmother and the girls got to sit together.  

 

The thing with animal viewing expeditions is that these are wild animals with their own minds and schedules and it’s never guaranteed you’ll see them and I was prepared for that possibility.  However, there could have been 500 head of bison lining the hillsides shoulder to shoulder and we would never have seen them because a half hour into the tour, a massive rain storm settled over the mountain (at that altitude we were literally in the middle of the rain cloud) and visibility was so poor I could barely make out Gen Z and her friend at the other end of the jeep bench.  The temperature also dropped rapidly to a point where I could see the breath coming out of my mouth.

 

As the rain picked up and our driver sped up to get us out of the weather, being on that open air jeep the rain felt like being pelted nonstop with ice marbles.  I’d packed light rain coats for Gen Z and I, and our guide handed out blankets to wrap up in, but with the volume of wind and rain, we all were completely soaked through within minutes.

 

When we reached the top of the mountain we stopped at a cool little airport and bar where we got to go inside and warm up for 10 minutes (and where we did see one bison and one other very adorable form of “wildlife” lol).  I desperately searched the gift shop for ponchos but they were sold out.  Finally one of our fellow excursion guests came up with the idea to ask the bar staff for trash bags we could all put over ourselves to use as ponchos for the hour drive back down the mountain in pouring rain and thunder.

 

I was praying on the way down that our driver knew those narrow winding roads really well (he did, he’d been driving them for 10 years) because again there was no visibility.  We did manage to see one tiny fox go running across the road right in front of us and fortunately the kids on the tour seemed to take the whole thing as a funny adventure.  The adults however, were less amused.

 

There was a family of 6 on the tour with us and I could tell when we finished that the dad was furious.  He was talking loudly about how Celebrity clearly must’ve known how bad the weather would get but decided to try and rush us through the tour rather than cancel and have to give refunds.  When our tender got back to the ship, I saw him marching his entire soaked and trash bag adorned family with him over to guest services to demand a refund (at over $150 per person I guess they’d spent serious money on that tour).

 

All I cared about at that point was getting Gen Z and I hot beverages and into warm dry clothes and wasn’t going to wait in line to complain about anything, especially weather.  We went straight to our suite where our savior Ronald brought us hot chocolate and tea.  By dinner that evening I noticed that our onboard account balance had jumped over $300 to the negative, so I guess whatever angry dad said to guest services was convincing enough that they just refunded everyone on the tour.

 

I would love to do Catalina island and even this tour again sometime when the weather is better.  I don’t see any sailings for this itinerary in 2024 on Celebrity though.

 

In better news, as I’ve been writing this I’m feeling my Dramamine really kick in!  I’m going to go get myself a green tea to further settle my stomach and counteract the drowsiness from the meds then will pick Gen Z up from the ping pong tournament at camp and we’ll head to lunch at sushi on 5.  

 

Turned out to be a perfect day for it, that miso soup at sushi on 5 is a miracle drug for sea sickness (and hangovers too btw).
 

Sharing the few Catalina pics I managed to get before I had to shelter my phone from the elements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[westcoastsue]

On a clear day I can see Catalina from my deck, and even though it’s “26 miles across the sea” it feels like you could reach out and touch it. I have done most of the tours on offer and they are wonderful, especially when you get to see the bison herds. So sorry to hear about your disappointing excursion. I’ve lived in California since 1967 and this has been the coldest, wettest winter I a remember. Since I’m originally from the UK I am actually enjoying the rain - the wind is another matter.

It is often rough sailing from Cabo to LA even when the weather is relatively nice since it is a “uphill run”.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise. We board on 4/22 for 11 days - 7 & 4 day B2B.

[peanut head]

Hey Charla!  You are an amazing mom and just a great person.

[JintyGirl]

Loving the review! We’re due to sail on the Solstice on 22nd April -Pacific Coastal - with a stop in Catalina Island - praying for better weather 😳 The California freak weather has made the news over here in Scotland. 

[GenerationX]

 

Checking in from our rocky sea day afternoon on Solstice.  I’m glad I got meds in my system because it seems we’re getting more motion on our way north.  Up on deck 10!in our stateroom the ship is groaning and creaking pretty loudly with the rocking.

 

I’m so glad Gen Z has a solid stomach.  Being on the top deck and all the way forward the kids and teens club areas get the worst of the movement.  I questioned the decision on E class to put the kids and teens clubs on the lowest decks with minimal windows, but maybe there was method to the madness after all.

 

Gen Z got invited to play Minecraft in kids club with her friends this afternoon, so I’m in Al Bacio enjoying a French Kiss coffee cocktail and writing about our evening last night.

 

Last night’s dinner was at Tuscan Grille.  I’ve always thought TG is kind of a “spotty” specialty restaurant on Celebrity.  Some ships the food has been outstanding, others just ok, a few occasions flat out disappointing.  Granted it was several years ago, but I remember when Jeremy and I did our Alaska honeymoon cruise on Solstice it was one of our best Tuscan experiences.  This time, while the service was just as excellent, the food, or at least some of my favorite items, had definitely slipped.

 

Our calamari starter wasn’t breaded well and it was like chewing rubber.  The Caesar salad that I had at lunch from room service was actually a bit better than the one I got in Tuscan.  

 

My ribeye was very flavorful and properly cooked and I devoured most of it, but it was back to those skinny breakfast steak style thin ribeyes that I remember having in some of the M class Tuscans.  

 

The meatballs and sauce on the spaghetti side that I ordered were very good, but the pasta was undercooked so I just focused on eating the meat and sauce. 

 

I spent a little of that OBC we have to get a bottle of one of my favorite amarone’s. The last two cruises I’ve done it was sold out onboard. The sommelier told me I got one of only 3 bottles left on the ship this cruise.

 

Things seemed to go far better food wise on Gen Z’s side of the table though.  In fact I didn’t even get a picture of her bronzino entree because she devoured it in record time with literally only a sliver of rosemary left on her plate.  Gen Z was given both the regular and kids Tuscan menu (pic below as I don’t think it shows in the app) and was free to order from either even though we paid the much lower kids price for the restaurant cover charge.

 

For dessert I had a slice of the lemoncello cheesecake which was thankfully as heavenly as always and Gen Z had a scoop of vanilla gelato which the chef was nice enough to garnish with white chocolate shavings for her.  I would love to tell you how it was but I was not permitted a bite.

 

Earlier in the cruise I heard someone talking about how good the veal was at Tuscan this cruise and I’ve never had it before so we may give Tuscan one more try.  We’re still burning OBC so I told her we could do a specialty restaurant of her choice (other than LPC)  for dinner tomorrow night.  Given how much she enjoyed that fish I have a feeling she may pick Tuscan.

 

After dinner, we were supposed to go to the ship’s production show together, but I was once again ditched.  This time, my competition was Camp at Sea’s Campout Party, which is usually held on the lawn club but due to our weather was held in the sky conference center.  The kids didn’t seem to mind because the staff still set up the tents and faux campfire and s’mores, music and games seemed to be in abundance. Gen Z won a couple of the games and got a Celebrity t-shirt and Camp at Sea seapass card lanyard as prizes.

 

After dropping Gen Z off I headed to the show solo. Upon sitting down a server promptly arrived to offer me a drink to enjoy during the show.  The show was Amade and description as a “tribute to Mozart”.  Per standard, plot = zero and avant-garde was the order of the day for costumes.  I’d say maybe 50% of the music was actually Mozart and the rest was more current popular songs, but I think where they were going with it is a showcase of the themes in music and dance that have continued for hundreds of years and how elements of the classics can be found even in modern work.

 

The singers, dancers and acrobats all did an excellent job.

 

On my way out of the theater, two kids I’d never seen before in my life came up to me and said “hey miss you’re [Gen Z]’s mom right? Are you going to pick her from Camp? Is she coming to the white party????”

 

Now I know how poor Jeremy feels on our cruises.

 

After I picked her up, Gen Z and I did in fact hit the very well attended white party (which was also moved from the pool deck to the grand foyer due to weather) and nearly shut it down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stem to Stern]

"Are you GenX's husband?"  Poor, poor Jeremy.  Hee hee.

[CTSandy]

Your daughter is just adorable!  

[tcmagnum]

48 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

 

Checking in from our rocky sea day afternoon on Solstice.  I’m glad I got meds in my system because it seems we’re getting more motion on our way north.  Up on deck 10!in our stateroom the ship is groaning and creaking pretty loudly with the rocking.

 

I’m so glad Gen Z has a solid stomach.  Being on the top deck and all the way forward the kids and teens club areas get the worst of the movement.  I questioned the decision on E class to put the kids and teens clubs on the lowest decks with minimal windows, but maybe there was method to the madness after all.

 

Gen Z got invited to play Minecraft in kids club with her friends this afternoon, so I’m in Al Bacio enjoying a French Kiss coffee cocktail and writing about our evening last night.

 

Last night’s dinner was at Tuscan Grille.  I’ve always thought TG is kind of a “spotty” specialty restaurant on Celebrity.  Some ships the food has been outstanding, others just ok, a few occasions flat out disappointing.  Granted it was several years ago, but I remember when Jeremy and I did our Alaska honeymoon cruise on Solstice it was one of our best Tuscan experiences.  This time, while the service was just as excellent, the food, or at least some of my favorite items, had definitely slipped.

 

Our calamari starter wasn’t breaded well and it was like chewing rubber.  The Caesar salad that I had at lunch from room service was actually a bit better than the one I got in Tuscan.  

 

My ribeye was very flavorful and properly cooked and I devoured most of it, but it was back to those skinny breakfast steak style thin ribeyes that I remember having in some of the M class Tuscans.  

 

The meatballs and sauce on the spaghetti side that I ordered were very good, but the pasta was undercooked so I just focused on eating the meat and sauce. 

 

I spent a little of that OBC we have to get a bottle of one of my favorite amarone’s. The last two cruises I’ve done it was sold out onboard. The sommelier told me I got one of only 3 bottles left on the ship this cruise.

 

Things seemed to go far better food wise on Gen Z’s side of the table though.  In fact I didn’t even get a picture of her bronzino entree because she devoured it in record time with literally only a sliver of rosemary left on her plate.  Gen Z was given both the regular and kids Tuscan menu (pic below as I don’t think it shows in the app) and was free to order from either even though we paid the much lower kids price for the restaurant cover charge.

 

For dessert I had a slice of the lemoncello cheesecake which was thankfully as heavenly as always and Gen Z had a scoop of vanilla gelato which the chef was nice enough to garnish with white chocolate shavings for her.  I would love to tell you how it was but I was not permitted a bite.

 

Earlier in the cruise I heard someone talking about how good the veal was at Tuscan this cruise and I’ve never had it before so we may give Tuscan one more try.  We’re still burning OBC so I told her we could do a specialty restaurant of her choice (other than LPC)  for dinner tomorrow night.  Given how much she enjoyed that fish I have a feeling she may pick Tuscan.

 

 

 

 

Love Love Love the outfits!!!

[terrydtx]

25 minutes ago, CTSandy said:

Your daughter is just adorable!  

I agree 100%

[juanrod]

The Sun has finally come out today in Orange County socal so you will be coming back to nicer weather then when u left but still very cold out. 

[TPCRUISER2]

Wow Charla! Best review yet! Love your outfits, you making lemonade out of lemons, and Gen Z being soo smart to get her own needs met in regards to Chocolate. And especially you being transparent about your camp at sea. Many of us may have that in common. So glad your mini me has found her cruise vibe!

[Jim_Iain]

So sorry the sea's were so rough.   You are luck that you can tolerate SeaSickness meds.   They knock me out totally.    As a kid I got motion sickness really bad but once I became a pilot it went away for car sickness and flying but was still affected at sea.

 

I had a trick of Sea Sickness and would take a pill the night before and would get a good nights sleep.   It would calm my inner ear down enough that I wouldn't need another for a cruise.    Over time it went away and now not affected (but still carry some pills just in case).

 

 

 

 

[GenerationX]

Good morning from the solarium.  Well kids, we’re not in Cabo anymore.  The temperature on the pool deck is about 59 degrees and windy.  The pool attendants seem to be expecting a busy day in here because chair saving prevention is in full effect.

 

There are also pool servers providing drink service which is nice.  I remember on our Alaska cruise having to jump out of my nice warm solarium hot tub and brace myself against the glacier breezes to go stand out at the pool bar to get a drink.

 

Picking up where we left off yesterday, after a great lunch at Sushi on 5 (as you can see, Mini Me is over me taking photos of all her food 😂), Gen Z and I went back to the cabin for some family puzzle time then napped until it was time to dress for chic night dinner.  Gen Z had her usual shrimp cocktail and salmon from the MDR. I went with the Luminae menu and had the kale soup, then both the lobster and scallop entrees.  For dessert we split the baked Alaska.  The portion sizes on the soup and dessert were like double what they were in Luminae on Apex but the lobster and scallops were much smaller.  I couldn’t help but think of those massive delicious scallops I was given on the side of my veal my first night on MSC Divina (sorry, Jeremy had told me I really need to stop with the MSC comparisons).  Anyway, despite the smaller sizes, both were cooked well.

 

After dinner Gen Z was conflicted between the magician show and going to a pajama party at kids club with her friends.  She decided to go PJ party and see the matinee magician show after lunch today.

 

Gen Z’s cruise bestie’s parents and I decided to let the girls stay at kids club late while we got some martinis together.  Complimentary kids club hours end at 10pm but if you let the staff know in the morning, they offer extended hours till as late as 1am for an extra charge of $6 an hour.  Total charge for an hour and a half of extra martini time: $9.  I charged more than that when I was babysitting as a teenager.

 

When we got back to our room, the bad news was on our bed.  Gen Z took it even harder than Jeremy did on Apex.  Sharing the disembark and future cruise offer info for anyone interested:

 

As I suspected, Gen Z decided that she wants to do Tuscan Grille again for dinner tonight.  Folks who were on Solstice recently and dined there, please feel free to share recommendations!  Since my go to’s were a bit of a dud last time I think I’ll use tonight to try some new things.

 

Agenda for the rest of the day:

 

-A little more indoor pool and mimosa time (perhaps while making some dining reservations for my Beyond cruise next month, don’t judge me)

 

-Shower, dress and hit the atm and guest services for thank you envelope supplies

 

-Lunch in Luminae

 

-Mommy and Me Hot Glass Class

 

-Matinee Magician Show

 

-Packing and Sulking before one last dinner and show at sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by GenerationX

[DaKahuna]

@GenerationX  If you do not mind, would you advise the disembarkation process for Suite guest?  We will be getting off our next cruise in Los Angeles/San Pedro and headed to Long Beach airport.  This will be the first time since September 2008 that we will be getting off a ship there. 

 

I tried zooming  in on the letter in the above picture but could not make all of the words.  

 

Thank you,

 

John

 

[sherrihall128]

I've been following along, and you've made me want to book a girls-only cruise with my daughter. This looks so fun!