Solstice B2B - April 15-29 - Mex Riviera & Pac Coastal

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, aring75 said:

They’ve made a few separate “last call” notifications for everyone to proceed to disembarkation. They just had to call several people by name instructing them to go directly to the gangway to exit the ship. 
 

Jeez people. I hate when the cruise is over too. But c’mon. Go home already. 

Agree. Bon Voyage, again. 🥂

[aring75]

20 minutes ago, JintyGirl said:

Meanwhile 100s of people waiting to board!! 😔

Oh wow! It looked like that when we boarded also. Lots of people showed up before their assigned time and I feel like they should probably just do away with that altogether. We waited almost an hour to board. I hope it goes more smoothly for you!!

[miched]

We did the Mixology and Music  on the Beyond.  It was ok.   There was a Flair BT.  He made a Spiked Pimm, a Manhattan served in a martini glass and a Mai Tai in a flute.  None were worth drinking as we had the premium drink pack and could have better drinks.  It lasted about 1/2 hour.   It started at 5 pm and ended at around 5:30. We left after all the drinks were served.  There was no reason to hang around.  The Manhattan was made with Makers.   To me it was a waste of a decent bourbon. 

 

it is ok if you don’t have a drink pack and want free drinks.  You can see from the photo what we left

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Edited April 22, 2023 by miched

[balisong187]

43 minutes ago, JintyGirl said:

Meanwhile 100s of people waiting to board!! 😔

Yep, we're in the 1100-1130 boarding window and it's now 1210 and we're not allowed in line yet. Not a great 1st impression of Celebrity. This thread has been amazing and informative though, thanks so much to the OP!

[JintyGirl]

31 minutes ago, balisong187 said:

Yep, we're in the 1100-1130 boarding window and it's now 1210 and we're not allowed in line yet. Not a great 1st impression of Celebrity. This thread has been amazing and informative though, thanks so much to the OP!

Yikes! We’re Aqua so got to board after Suites and Zenith. My husband was waiting for someone to push him in a wheelchair, but he gave up and walked. 
Last summer we boarded in Rome (also Celebrity). We arrived at the terminal at 11am and walked straight through check in and on to the ship. We were at our room by 11:15. I was expecting the same today! Think we got to our room about 12:10. 
Anyway, we’re here now and have a drink in hand. Cheers!! 

[aring75]

1 hour ago, balisong187 said:

Yep, we're in the 1100-1130 boarding window and it's now 1210 and we're not allowed in line yet. Not a great 1st impression of Celebrity. This thread has been amazing and informative though, thanks so much to the OP!

It’s probably important to note that the majority of the decisions at the port are made by port authority employees. Celebrity can inform them of various passenger “statuses” to allow some passengers to have priority. But as far as not checking assigned boarding times and slow lines etc. Pretty sure that’s mostly on the port.

 

And thanks @balisong187 this cruise has been fun to report on too!

[aring75]

42 minutes ago, JintyGirl said:

Anyway, we’re here now and have a drink in hand. Cheers!! 

Yay! So vacation has officially begun! 🥂

[aring75]

So concierge passengers can enjoy lunch on boarding day in the Grand Épernay dining room. 
 

 

 

B2B passengers get to join them too. And will order from the same menu. 
 

[aring75]

When we sat down, the sommelier from the MDR (Allan) stopped by for our drink order. I told him I’d like to start the cruise off with a glass of champagne. 
 

When he came back he brought me two. He said, “That one little glass is not enough. I brought two for you.” 😳

 

Clearly he remembered me from dinner. 😂

 

 

[aring75]

Caesar salad to start. We both had this. 
 

 

 

Mark opted for the short rib. He said it had a bit of an unusual sauce, but he really liked it. 
 

 

 

I had the salmon and it was outstanding. 
 

[aring75]

Had the apple pie for dessert. Thank you Celebrity for not putting raisins in your apple pie. 
 

 

 

You guys at Royal Caribbean need to get it together. 
 

Raisins. In apple pie.
 

Weirdos. 😑

[39august]

What brand is the champagne they are pouring, please? I am hoping for Cattier on EQ in 2 days. 

[aring75]

1 hour ago, 39august said:

What brand is the champagne they are pouring, please? I am hoping for Cattier on EQ in 2 days. 

They had Cattier in the dining room at lunch, but our sommelier in Murano said they are changing ship wide to M. Haslinger & Fils. I had it with my dinner in Murano and it wasn’t bad, but not as good as the Cattier. 

[aring75]

And now we are ready to set sail again!

 

 

 

And enjoying our view from the Sunset Bar. 
 

[Lindsay564]

Have fun!  I board on May 3!

[balisong187]

I'm not going to hijack your thread, but I wanted to express thanks to all who recommended Sushi on 5 for embarking lunch. Very nice and relaxing atmosphere and very good food. Had the shrimp and lobster wontons, pork belly Ramen, and rainbow roll. All great stuff, will definitely be back there to try more stuff! Have a great cruise everyone!

[aring75]

1 hour ago, balisong187 said:

I'm not going to hijack your thread, but I wanted to express thanks to all who recommended Sushi on 5 for embarking lunch. Very nice and relaxing atmosphere and very good food. Had the shrimp and lobster wontons, pork belly Ramen, and rainbow roll. All great stuff, will definitely be back there to try more stuff! Have a great cruise everyone!

 

Hijack away! I love to hear about other people’s experiences onboard and I just might hear about something new! We can’t possibly get to everything so I’d love to know about all the other great stuff that’s happening. 😁
 

EDIT: And I’m glad to hear you enjoyed So5. We will be having dinner there later this week. Yum!

Edited April 23, 2023 by aring75
Hit save button too soon. Whoops.

[aring75]

Last cruise during sailaway it was a little too hazy to see the surrounding mountains. 
 

 

 

And this time we raced Carnival’s Panorama out to sea. 
 

 

 

We are pretty far behind now though. I think we had about 24 miles to our first port at Catalina Island. We are creeping along. 😂

[balisong187]

1 hour ago, aring75 said:

 

Hijack away! I love to hear about other people’s experiences onboard and I just might hear about something new! We can’t possibly get to everything so I’d love to know about all the other great stuff that’s happening. 😁
 

EDIT: And I’m glad to hear you enjoyed So5. We will be having dinner there later this week. Yum!

Haha ok, when we get to better land internet signal I'll upload a couple food pics. Really appreciative of your informative post. Also a bit ago had a terrific burger and fries at the Mast Grill. As people that don't like to be in direct sunlight too much, we're loving the amount of nice shaded seating with nice ocean views on this ship! That's something we find lacking on a lot of other ships. Especially our most recent one, the Carnival Panorama. For a ship called the Panorama the views from the ship were underwhelming. So far very impressed with the Solstice for nice seating areas, really cool bars, and so far really good food. It also so far doesn't feel very crowded at all. Does anyone know if we're full capacity?

[juanrod]

Safe travels 

[aring75]

2 hours ago, balisong187 said:

Haha ok, when we get to better land internet signal I'll upload a couple food pics. Really appreciative of your informative post. Also a bit ago had a terrific burger and fries at the Mast Grill. As people that don't like to be in direct sunlight too much, we're loving the amount of nice shaded seating with nice ocean views on this ship! That's something we find lacking on a lot of other ships. Especially our most recent one, the Carnival Panorama. For a ship called the Panorama the views from the ship were underwhelming. So far very impressed with the Solstice for nice seating areas, really cool bars, and so far really good food. It also so far doesn't feel very crowded at all. Does anyone know if we're full capacity?

Im not sure and I will try to remember to ask. But we talked to several people who were forced to park in the extended parking areas because the main parking was full. I’ll see if I can find out. 

[balisong187]

49 minutes ago, aring75 said:

Im not sure and I will try to remember to ask. But we talked to several people who were forced to park in the extended parking areas because the main parking was full. I’ll see if I can find out. 

We parked sorta far out, but before sailaway we could see our car in the parking lot and there were a ton of empty spots that weren't there when we were parking. Either way, loving how uncrowded it feels on this ship! Os that typical for this class of X ship? Had dinner in the main dining room, it was pretty good.

[aring75]

Tonight’s First night’s dinner seems different than last cruise. 
 

 

[aring75]

Started with the escargot and the Caesar. Mark had the French onion soup and the wedge salad. 
 

 

 

 

You could choose from bleu cheese, walnut vinaigrette, or Celebrity dressing (which we were told is kind of like a ranch) for the wedge. 
 

[aring75]

Mark went with the turkey Parmesan. Our main waiter recommended it and he said he liked it. 
 

 

 

I just went with the New York sirloin. Pretty basic, but not bad.