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

[mahdnc]

Some more information about the overnight tour that I hope will be useful:

 

The tour is expensive.  When I originally booked the tour for my wife and I, it cost $1,508 that included a modest pre-cruise discount (5%? maybe 10%?).  Nevertheless, the tour sold out very quickly.

 

During the Memorial Day 2023 sale, this tour had a large price reduction (despite its still sold out status) and I was able to cancel and rebook it through my cruise planner for $1,154 without losing my spots.

 

Now that I know who Celebrity uses for this overnight cruise, I was able to do a mock booking (direct on their website) for the Paradise Grand for a Sun-Mon trip in January and also one in April. The highest price that I got was $344.13 total for the same cabin we had!!  Although it doesn't change the analysis, I do want to point out that booking through Celebrity includes ground transport to the Paradise pier and it is largely refundable whereas all fares booked through the Paradise website were immediately non-refundable.

 

My advice is to try to book this excursion independently through any one of the many companies that do this overnight cruise before booking through Celebrity.  As I mentioned, I tried to do that, but Celebrity altered their arrival time to Halong Bay which made it impossible for me.

 

[Bullswood]

Yes, even adding the $25 taxi fare in this case, the shore excursion mark-ups are breathtaking where overnight accommodation is involved (so the Bangkok overnight as well). I think those who booked the Halong seaplane flight also found that 100% or more was being added by Celebrity. That is in addition to a perhaps 10-15% agency commission that they would presumably already be getting from the operator ex the advertised retail price to the public. Perhaps it’s to compensate themselves for not having those guests on the ship spending buckets of money in the bar,casino, art sales & spa for 24hrs?

On the other hand, some of the short bus tours & transfers were competitively priced in the recent sales.

Edited January 1 by Bullswood

[mahdnc]

This morning we woke up to a magnificent sunrise at Halong Bay--a view from our balcony:

[mahdnc]

Besides cruising around Halong Bay (which was cool), we were offered an opportunity to either kayak or ride in a rowed boat.  My wife wanted us to ride the boat and not kayak (something about me not being a good kayaker).  

 

 

 

 

With kayak or boat, you could go through some of the tunnels under the limestone formations:

 

 

While on the water, we had an opportunity to watch some wild monkeys jumping from tree to tree:

 

[CarolCough]

I've really been enjoying your updates, thanks so much for the wonderful pictures too. 

[jls pebbles]

Thank you for sharing wonderful reviews and invaluable information. We are considering same cruise December 24. Will be first time with Celebrity and in this region so lots of research to do. Been cruising NCL for 15 years. All info and opinions very much welcomed. Enjoy the rest of your cruise

Edited January 1 by jls pebbles

[Arubamoose]

This has been an amazing review! 

We are going on the Millie (lift/shift/cancelled 2021 and lift/shift/cancelled again 2024 and final lift/shift) in March of 2025 - Singapore to Tokyo via Vietnam. 

We also booked Xuan in HCMC and Nha Trang.  I am the organizer of the HCMC trip and thankfully NOT the organizer of the Nha Trang trip!

Have a Happy New Year.

[hawkesbaynz]

Great review😀. We did the overnight in Hanoi with X and it was massively overcharged. However we had lots of OBC A couple who joined us with Xuan did a private tour, just them and a guide, and it was half the price.

 

Incidentally Xuan WhatsApp’s me today to with HNY. I’ll give him a well deserved plug: https://www.tourwithxuan.com/

[mahdnc]

Here are some photos of our balcony cabin aboard the Paradise Grand during our Halong Bay overnight excursion:

 

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

Some more photos of the Paradise Grand:

 

 

 

 

Nothing is perfect and therefore there were a couple of things that I didn't like about the cruise (besides the high price that Celebrity charged that I couldn't do anything about).  The first one was the dining room seating arrangement.  Most of the seating was done in a very long row of tables.  There were a couple of 2 tops in an adjacent room (bar lounge) and several booths for 6-8 people that seemed to be reserved for families).  The other thing that I didn't like was that you had to pay for water in the dining room ($2 USD for a glass bottle of water that would fill two glasses).  Alcohol prices were reasonable however.

 

There was a special menu for New Year's Eve.  Lobster thermidor was served to everyone and there was a meat station (below) you could go to as well (most of the meats were behind the chef and not visible in the photo below.

 

[CardowMD]

Beautiful cabins and ship. May be that dining style is common in Vietnam?

[mahdnc]

32 minutes ago, CardowMD said:

Beautiful cabins and ship. May be that dining style is common in Vietnam?

Perhaps it is. I just didn’t expect it, that’s all. Also the service was buffet style and so the dining seating arrangement made it a little bit difficult to negotiate. But no one left the dining room hungry!

 

As for the ship and cabin, it was very nice and up to Celebrity standards. 
 

Our Vietnamese guide who led our shore excursion was excellent and extremely charming. I was impressed with her. 

Edited January 2 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

The ship’s clock moved an hour forward last night and so we have up there extra hour that we gained from the first night of the cruise. 
 

So we are having a late breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe. Even though it was pretty busy when we got there, we found a nice clean table in the outdoor area under the shade. Life is good!

 

The current view from our table:

We are sailing under partly cloudy skies and very smooth seas. The captain is not pushing Solstice’s screws very hard as there is barely a wake behind us. Looks like we are on the proverbial “slow boat” to Hong Kong. 

 

As we sail, we are accompanied by two freighters on our port side. Funny how ugly freighters look so nice from a cruise ship…
 

Edited January 2 by mahdnc

[Viveash]

Many thanks for your detailed and interesting cruise report, which I have followed from day one, as we will be taking the same cruise in a couple of weeks.

I have read so many opinions on how the overall quality of food and service on Celebrity ships has fallen away in recent years and was just wondering what your experience has been, on this cruise?

We have sailed on around half a dozen Celebrity cruises pre-covid and never found that to be an issue.

 

[mahdnc]

We’re got our passports back this morning after having surrendered them during embarkation. 
 

We were given this schedule last night in our stateroom (link to the full flyer):

We happen to be on our way to a late breakfast and found our station open with no line at 9:45 am.

 

 

After finishing breakfast and walked by, there still was no line.

 

Today’s passport retrieval process was very convenient and much better than what we went through the last time we gave up our passports aboard Infinity in Christmas 2016 (South America). 
 

When you get your passport, you are also given a Hong Kong immigration form along with instructions (linklink ) for each person in your stateroom. 
 

Before putting away my passport i took a look at it and saw that it bore Thailand and Vietnam stamps. 
 

 

[mahdnc]

During the time Solstice spent in Vietnam, there were several Vietnam immigration officers onboard. My wife talked to one of them during an elevator ride. She said that he spoke very good English. He mentioned that when the ship is docked, they are allowed to eat at the Oceanview Cafe (photo) otherwise when the ship is sailing, they eat with the crew. 

 

During our first stop at Vietnam (Phu My), our Passenger Landing card (photo) is stamped by a Vietnamese immigration officer onboard. It is to be inspected by every time we get off the ship thereafter, but that was very hit and miss. 
 

[mahdnc]

5 hours ago, Viveash said:

Many thanks for your detailed and interesting cruise report, which I have followed from day one, as we will be taking the same cruise in a couple of weeks.

I have read so many opinions on how the overall quality of food and service on Celebrity ships has fallen away in recent years and was just wondering what your experience has been, on this cruise?

We have sailed on around half a dozen Celebrity cruises pre-covid and never found that to be an issue.

 

It’s hard for me to make an apples to apples comparison with food and dining service on this sailing because this is our first cruise dining at Blu.

 

However I found that I didn’t like the menu that much although the service was good. I ordered at least one course from the MDR menu during the six dinners we had there (we ate twice away from the ship and four times at the specialty restaurants). 
 

We ate several breakfast and lunches at ther Oceanview Cafe and MDR and I was fine with the food and service.

 

We ate at Murano and Tuscan Grill twice each and service and food were top notch. 
 

 

We skipped Le Petite Chef on this cruise. 

 

Edited January 2 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

We docked at Hong Kong on schedule at 6 am this morning (local Hong Kong time).  I woke up at 5 am to watch the sail in from our balcony.

 

 

[mahdnc]

 

This is our awesome stateroom attendant, Darkham, from Indonesia .  Darkham has been with Celebrity for over 20 years.  His first ship was Zenith and he has worked many other Celebrity ships including Mercury, Infinity, Summit, and Constellation.  He has yet to work on any Edge Class ships because he doesn't like the IV cabins (I am just kidding about the reason, but he has not worked Edge class yet).

 

Darkham is assigned to "only" 10 cabins because his responsibilities include the suites such as PS and RS.  His contact card in our cabin has "Retreat Host" printed on it.

 

Darkham did an excellent job for us.  He was extremely competent and non-obtrusive.  We said our goodbyes as we left our cabin for the last time on this sailing.  We will miss him.

[mahdnc]

@steve3008 @Blazerboy

 

I checked with our Blu Sommelier, Teo.  He confirmed that Solstice still has Grgich Hills in their inventory.  They had Grgich's Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Fume' Blanc.  We ordered a bottle of the Fume' ($65 including Captains Club discount and gratuity).

 

 

I also asked Teo about Caymus as Constellation did not actually have it during our Oct 2022 Transatlantic despite it being on their wine list.  They had 5 bottles of the Cabernet Sauvignon left, so we ordered one ($135 USD less 20% Captains Club discount + 18% gratuity).  That is the Solstice wine report,

 

[mahdnc]

There have been several ship-wide announcements that Solstice has paused disembarkation due to "Hong Kong immigration and inspection flow in the terminal".  I would estimate that things have been stopped for over 30 minutes now.    

 

We were assigned disembarkation group #29. because we have no flights to catch today as we will be staying in Hong Kong for 5 nights.  So we wait patiently sitting comfortably in the lounge in front of Murano.

 

[mahdnc]

Even though we were at sea all day yesterday, the ship's casino did not open until 6 pm last night (30 minutes later than scheduled).  I presume that the casino closure for most of the day yesterday was because we were in Chinese territorial waters.

 

This cruise was such a busy one that Marcia and I did not spend much time at the casino.  During Sea Day #2 (Dec 27), I spent only an hour at the blackjack tables.  Normally I play the lowest minimum table ($10) but those tables payout a paltry 6:5 for a natural blackjack which I find repulsive.  You have to go to the $25 tables to get the traditional 3:2. payout.  So that is where I went. 

 

The $25 table usually doesn't see many players and it was unsurprisingly empty when I arrived. So I opened the table and played head to head against the dealer and was holding my own (you can lose money very quickly due to the rapid rate of play if you are the only one playing).  After a while an elderly Chinese gentlemen who spoke little English joined the table.  I was initially leery of him because the dealer had to instruct him to place a larger bet because he was only betting $10.  I was thinking "oh boy".  But after a few hands we were both on a winning roll and we high fived each other after each victory (winning money together transcends all language barriers).  After an hour I walked away ahead by $350 and I had a new friend.  

 

To top it off, my wife was on the slots and was up $150.  Life was good.

 

My favorite dealer, Lyn, from the Philippines....

 

When we went back to the casino yesterday the $25 blackjack table minimum was raised to $50 and there were two tables open, but empty.  So I decided not to play. 

 

I did enter a blackjack tournament and got the worst cards ever and flamed out in the first round.  That got my blackjack urge out of my system and so I went to the cashier's cage to cash in my chips and lock in my winnings--at least for this cruise.

 

My wife on the other hand played the slots last night and unfortunately lost her $150 winnings from the other day and then she lost her $200 that she budgeted for the cruise.  Easy come and easy go!

 

My wife mentioned that although the casino advertises free drinks for all active players, she was asked for her SeaPass card every time a cocktail waiter/waitress dropped by to take her order.  So she wasn't certain if she was getting the drink "free" for playing in the casino or whether it was counted against her drink package.

 

 

[mahdnc]

@Suzi66, have a nice cruise on Solstice.  Bon voyage.

[mahdnc]

Captain Theodoros, Solstice's master.  He has 3 young children and they were aboard Solstice for this sailing and then they go back to school.  They evidently spent their time in the kids club (I guess you cannot have them on the bridge all day).  The captain said that they also join him on sailings when school is out for the summer.

 

[mahdnc]

It is 10:44 am and Group 41 has been called.