Live: Dec 22 2023 Solstice 12 Night Thailand & Vietnam Holiday Cruise!

[mahdnc]

Our tour dropped us off at the pier at exactly 4:00 pm which was one hour before Solstice was scheduled to leave although she ended up leaving later.  We thoroughly enjoyed the day.

 

I hope you liked today's posts and photos.  Time to go to bed.  We are headed to Nha Trang tomorrow.  It is a tender port and our guide told us that it is a port that is often cancelled because of weather.  So we will see.

 

David

[mahdnc]

31 minutes ago, chemmo said:

Your truck shots brought back many happy memories of our numerous trips to the Far East. Do they load up lorries and take bets on the likelihood of them reaching their destination?
 

We once followed a truck full of water bottles…The big ones for offices…Every corner we cringed as they slewed one way then the other…Our Tuc Tuc driver was gleefully gesturing to us what he expected to happen when the lorry driver turned off sharply to the right at speed and the inevitable happened…Needless to say our Tuc Tuc driver had to stop to ‘help’ the unfortunate driver with many gesticulations of advice! We also remember clearly seeing two cyclists one behind the other cycling through a busy thoroughfare of Bangkok carrying a large glazing unit…We took bets on that one…We contemplated leaving our evening beverages to follow them until what we felt must be an inevitable end…

 

 

 

Wow--that sounds pretty interesting.  No, we did not see anything that close to happening during this trip so far!

[cavaaller]

I just found your blog and read it in one swoop. It is really well written, interesting and informative. Thank you very much!

[Torfamm]

3 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

Our guide explained the rituals and customs in this temple and some of us participated.

 

In the interest of our planning, I noticed people wearing shorts and short skirts. Are there no issues with not covering knees and shoulders in the temple there as there are in Thailand?

[bjahil47]

Great pictures!  That tour sounded wonderful!

[mchell810]

4 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Our tour dropped us off at the pier at exactly 4:00 pm which was one hour before Solstice was scheduled to leave although she ended up leaving later.  We thoroughly enjoyed the day.

 

I hope you liked today's posts and photos.  Time to go to bed.  We are headed to Nha Trang tomorrow.  It is a tender port and our guide told us that it is a port that is often cancelled because of weather.  So we will see.

 

David

 

Please don't apologize for your photos: scenes of everyday life are always interesting; especially when taken with your great eye.

 

I hope you make it into Nha Trang 🤞

[Jim_Iain]

11 hours ago, mahdnc said:

I will post speed test data later, but suffice it to say that the WiFi onboard Solstice so far is not good even with Starlink.
 

Two (or three?) nights ago it was not even working. When it is working, it is common to have to upload photos onto this Cruise Critic thread several times before i succeed.  
 

Speeds are comparable to what it was on our prior two Solstice cruises (2018 & 2020) before Starlink was installed. 
 

i thought I was a winner for getting a great deal on the premium WiFi upgrade price.  I don’t feel like a winner right now!

 

Sorry to hear.   Was on Edge in Nov/December and sailed out of Singapore to Indonesia.   The internet was pretty solid the whole time.    Have you tried to isolate if it is just in your room or ever where on the ship.    In the past I have had some rooms that were in a dead spot and they were able to install a router in the room to fix the problem.    Worth making a complaint -   Using the Electronic Attention to Detail form posted in the daily is usually a quick way to bring it to the attention of the correct department.

[villauk]

Your photos brought back so many wonderful memories - thank you!

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for all the hard work.   I love your photography.      I really enjoy people watching and your brought your visit to life with all of the people photos.   

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, Torfamm said:

In the interest of our planning, I noticed people wearing shorts and short skirts. Are there no issues with not covering knees and shoulders in the temple there as there are in Thailand?

we were not warned of any requirements. 

[mahdnc]

13 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Sorry to hear.   Was on Edge in Nov/December and sailed out of Singapore to Indonesia.   The internet was pretty solid the whole time.    Have you tried to isolate if it is just in your room or ever where on the ship.    In the past I have had some rooms that were in a dead spot and they were able to install a router in the room to fix the problem.    Worth making a complaint -   Using the Electronic Attention to Detail form posted in the daily is usually a quick way to bring it to the attention of the correct department.

I have found the WiFi problem to be ship wide and not concentrated in any one location. 

[darren42]

42 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

I have found the WiFi problem to be ship wide and not concentrated in any one location. 

Starlink is not available in Vietnam so the ship falls back to it's older internet. Hence the slower wifi.

[hawkesbaynz]

Brought back great memories of our HCMC tour with Xuan Le early November. Great guide and a really nice young man. If you are using him for Chan May Port send him our best regards - Roger & May from Southampton. He arranged another guide for Nha Trang. 
 

Xuan Le advised us there was no requirement to cover up in Vietnam.

[cruisinsusin]

46 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

I have found the WiFi problem to be ship wide and not concentrated in any one location. 

Solstice's wifi was overall good on the transpacific and Australia to Singapore legs Oct and Nov so @darren42's suggestion would make sense.

[mahdnc]

There are so many small observations from each day, that it’s hard to remember them all, much less write them down in this thread.  A couple of things that occurred to me this morning while shaving….

 

As we were presenting our SeaPass card to get on the gangway and off the ship at Phu My, a passenger was being advised, “you cannot get off the ship today” by a Solstice security officer.  No doubt there was a problem with her Vietnamese visa.  I am guessing that she had applied for one through the ship after being on board. It took us about 3-4 business days for ours to get approved when I applied from home. That leaves little time to apply after getting on board if you want to make it to the first Vietnam port of call.  Hopefully she can get off the ship today at Nha Trang. 
 

Our guide, Xuan, advised that the rickshaw drivers would greatly appreciate a tip of around $5. Xuan offered to offer smaller bills of any of us didn’t have bills that small. 
 

We found that most of merchants in Ho Chi Minh City took American currency (and would give it back and many took credit cards as well. 
 

Yesterday’s Vietnamese coffee and pho lunch was covered by the tour price. 

[koolforkatz]

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yesterday’s Vietnamese coffee and pho lunch was covered by the tour price. 

The pho looked amazing. 
 

We are doing this cruise next spring, so I just wanted to thank you for taking time out of your holiday to share your pictures and experiences. It is very much appreciated. Looks fabulous 🙂 

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, darren42 said:

Starlink is not available in Vietnam so the ship falls back to it's older internet. Hence the slower wifi.

Thanks --- that would explain the issue.   Wonder if the OP was experiencing the same issue prior to being in Vietnam waters. 

 

I recall that when Edge was making it's way from Civitavecchia to Singapore they had the same issue with India and couldn't utilize Starlink.

[NMTraveller]

17 hours ago, mahdnc said:

I will post speed test data later, but suffice it to say that the WiFi onboard Solstice so far is not good even with Starlink.
 

Two (or three?) nights ago it was not even working. When it is working, it is common to have to upload photos onto this Cruise Critic thread several times before i succeed.  
 

Speeds are comparable to what it was on our prior two Solstice cruises (2018 & 2020) before Starlink was installed. 
 

i thought I was a winner for getting a great deal on the premium WiFi upgrade price.  I don’t feel like a winner right now!

Millie is at 3 with Premium WiFi.

[mahdnc]

Today's tendering was a bit of a fiasco for reasons that I cannot fully explain.  So I am targeting this post for other members who will be taking this itinerary (or the reverse one) this season.

 

A few days ago, I was trying to figure out what specific instructions to send out to our group of 7 that were sharing a private tour in Nha Trang which involved tendering.  I was told that tender tickets would be handed out starting at 7 am at the Martini Bar (Deck 4 above Guest Relations) on the day we arrived at Nha Trang.  We were scheduled to arrive Nha Trang at 8 am and Guest Relations told me to expect tendering to begin around 8:30 am.  Here were the written instructions for tendering that was issued to our stateroom: link.  Those written instructions as well as what was printed in the Celebrity Today made no mention of when the tender tickets would begin to be handed out.  So I thought I had some inside information.  I was wrong.

 

Our tour guide wrote instructions for us to meet him at the port gate at 8:30 am although he was well aware that it was a tender port and that we would make it to the gate as fast as we could.

 

My instructions to our group was that I would get the tender tickets for all 7 of us at 7 am and that we should meet at Guest Relations at 8 am to be ready to take the tender when it was out turn.

 

Out of our group of seven, four were not Elite members and I chose not to go the route of asking if we all could get off together using Elite privileges which gives us priority.

 

At 7:03 am I showed up to the Martini Bar to get tender tickets.  There was already a small line in front of me (photo below). 

 

 

By the time I got my 7 tender tickets, we were assigned Tender Group 6 which surprised me.  In retrospect, I wish I had gotten there at 6:30 am (easier said than done because you have to wake up a half hour earlier!).

 

 

When riding the elevator back to our cabin, I could see the fences already set up for crowd control and line management on Deck 3 that would lead out to the stairs to Deck 2 to get to the tenders.  I didn't realize it, but this was the calm before the storm.

 

 

When my wife and I arrived at Guest Relations at 8 am, everyone else in our group was there.  But so were a ton of other people.

 

At about 8:30 am, tender groups 1 & 2 were called.  We sit patiently at Guest Relations waiting for group 6 to be called. 

 

One of our members in our group was standing near the Celebrity employee who was serving as gate keeper for the line queue.  She reports back to me that some passengers are pleading their case that they have to get off the ship now or they will be late to their tour and that the gate keeper was allowing them to enter the tender line.  So I went to talk to the gatekeeper.  She was difficult to get to because of the crush of passengers surrounding her.  When I finally met her, I noticed that her badge said that she worked in the kids club--I chuckled thinking that her job gave her the exact skill set needed to manage the mob in the Grand Foyer.  She confirmed that she would let my group through if I could show documentation that we needed to be urgently ashore.  I showed her my email and she was satisfied with that. 

 

During that time there were dozens of other passengers also trying to get an exception to get into the line early.  As we were waiting for her to admit our group into the line, a man was berating the gate keeper about the tendering lines.  He yelled if this was the first time that Celebrity ever did a tender, how it has been over an hour now and that this is unacceptable.  My wife defended the gate keeper and asked the man what is it that he expects the gate keeper to do (good question).  By the way, this guy was very large and from my assessment, if this thing escalated between my wife and him, I determined that it would end very badly for me.  At 9:02 am, we were finally admitted into the tender line on Deck 3. 

 

 

We waited quite a while as other groups with higher priority were being led down the stairs to Deck 2.  By 9:20 am we were among the last people to get on the tender which was nice because it meant we did not have to wait much longer for the tender to fill up.

 

The tender pulled away from Solstice at 9:24 am.

 

 

 

By 9:45 am we finally got off the tender.  It took us a while to find our guide and we finally found him at 9:55 am and our tour of Nha Trang began.

 

In hind sight, I wished I had gotten to get tender tickets earlier than 7 am.  And perhaps I should have taken the initiative to inquire if something could be done about our needs to be on shore early for our tour.  I actually hate doing that because this has to be a common situation but I decided to do it once I discovered that it was happening all around us.  

 

When we were sailing away from the ship in our tender, I noticed that Solstice only had two tender stations operating.  When we were on her at the Great Barrier Reef in 2018, she operated four tender stations (2 on each side).  However I concluded that doubling the amount of tenders that could leave Solstice would shift the bottleneck to the shore area where there was space for only two tenders to dock.  Also the Great Barrier Reef involved a lot of commercial tenders and commercial shorex boats whereas Celebrity was only using her own tenders today.

 

I welcome any constructive comments or questions.

Edited December 29, 2023 by mahdnc

[Suzi66]

Luckily for the Jan 3 cruise the only tender stop is Koh Samui.  We have Hue/Chan May instead of Nha Trang.

I am enjoying your 'Live' very much and am busy sharing info with my husband as you post.  We fly to Hong Kong on Sunday.  I suppose I better pack tomorrow 😄

[mahdnc]

4 minutes ago, Suzi66 said:

Luckily for the Jan 3 cruise the only tender stop is Koh Samui.  We have Hue/Chan May instead of Nha Trang.

I am enjoying your 'Live' very much and am busy sharing info with my husband as you post.  We fly to Hong Kong on Sunday.  I suppose I better pack tomorrow 😄

We are never going to meet, are we?

 

Btw, we call on Chan May tomorrow, so I will have to look to see how our ports of call are different. 
 

I’ve had a good time so far. Ship and crew are excellent. 
 

Btw, I shared your story to another passenger today about how your tender and Solstice bumped into each other (and the broken glass) during the 2018 GBR sailing. 

[Suzi66]

6 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

We are never going to meet, are we?

 

Btw, we call on Chan May tomorrow, so I will have to look to see how our ports of call are different. 
 

I’ve had a good time so far. Ship and crew are excellent. 
 

Btw, I shared your story to another passenger today about how your tender and Solstice bumped into each other (and the broken glass) during the 2018 GBR sailing. 

It doesn't appear to be the case.  For a while anyway.  We have a booking for the Edge at Easter, then 2 on Ovation this time next year (our grand-daughters first cruise), then we have 2 on Virgin that March/April as the Resilient Lady leaves Australia and goes back to Europe.   We have just tried a 5 day cruise which had a lot of goods as well as a couple of not so goods.

I will need to scroll back to the start of your thread to see what your ports of call are.  The Jan 3 one is overnight Ha Long Bay, Chan May, Phu My, overnight Laem Chabang, Koh Samui, finishing at Singapore.  The following day we board the Millennium and have an overnight at Phuket, Langkawi, overnight Penang, Port Klang, Celukan Bewang, Lombok, and finishing in Benoa and flying home that night.  School in Australia is to start for teachers the next day but I am taking a day LSL as I won't get home to my town until lunchtime.  Hopefully the kids will be kind to me the next day.

 

[Suzi66]

I've just checked.  We have 4 Sea days while you have 3.  I wonder if we are the outlier or if all northern routes are one way and southbound the other.

 

[mahdnc]

While we were waiting to get on the tender this morning, @Bloss20 gave us more information about yesterday’s delayed departure from HCMC. 
 

From their balcony, they observed some 20 Celebrity shorex buses showing up to the pier late! So apparently it was not due to any one shorex bus like i had speculated yesterday. 
 

She talked to a passenger who was on one of the buses and that passenger said it appeared that there was some type of miscommunication on when the buses needed to return to the pier. It sounded like several passengers pointed out to their guides that they were going to be late to the pier based on the schedule, but their warnings went unheeded.

[Torfamm]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. We are doing a back to back on the Solstice starting in Singapore on January 15 and it’s been very helpful. I am grateful for the heads up on the tender situation in particular!