Day 7—Disembarkation and Rounding It All Up
I guess before I round up the entire trip, I need to mention disembarkation. It, like embarkation, was one of our best ever. Because we were in a suite, we didn’t have to wait for a luggage announcement. We finished breakfast, took our carry-on bags to the Retreat Lounge, and when the Concierges told us we could go, we just walked off (Kathleen was wheeled off). We got our luggage (if you need a porter, find one before you get your luggage, as they are few and far between in the check-out area; they are all elsewhere in the check-in area). We were in our van driving away at 9:00 am, back in Chilliwack by 10:15, and on our way to Redmond by 10:30. Perfect. We could easily have made a flight by noon at YVR, and so could you, especially if you walked off with all your luggage, which many people did.
Now, on to the final review. Where to begin? And how do I not forget something? Here’s my final report, and it’s a bit disjointed, so it jumps all over the place. To organize it, let’s divide this up into three ratings—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Or four ways, with the fourth choice being fine, since it was “just fine.”
Most of this cruise was “fine.”
Food
Food was fine but uneven. We ate at Luminae, the buffet (once), The Retreat Sundeck, The Sunset Park Cafe, Trattoria Rossa and Murano. Here are some quick comments about them all.
Luminae: We ate 90% of our meals here—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Breakfast was usually outstanding—I don’t think I had a bad one. Highlights included discovering things that really weren’t on the menu. Well, they were on the menu, but you have to make a small change.
For example, I tried the Eggs in Purgatory on day one. This is a dish with some of the best tomato sauce I have ever had, topped with five quail eggs cooked sunny-side up. It was great, but the quail eggs were too underdone for me. So the next morning (and a couple of mornings after), I ordered a small omelet with a side of that tomato sauce, which I topped it with. Delish! Other favorites were the Eggs Benedict, the frosted croissant (although it was tough to eat and/or cut, and some wonderful fresh-squeezed OJ. If you are in Luminae and like good coffee as we do (we are from Seattle), then skip the coffee and order an Americano or latte. They take a little time to make, but they are worth it.
Lunch was fine… except for one incredible sandwich I mentioned on our first sea day. The rest of the lunches we had there were just not that special. But I would drive 100 miles for that sandwich. It’s a destination in itself.
Dinner was barely fine and inconsistent. And it definitely did NOT pass the Steve Test. If it were near me here in Washington, I doubt I would ever have dinner there again. The chef had a real problem with meat. He could not figure it out. He served some great-looking cuts of meat with absolutely no taste. His prime rib was a huge cube of meat, not your normal, as was one of his steaks. I got to try the steak, and it was completely tasteless. His lamb loin was the same way. Just big hunks of meat. Nothing really special.
Hot Tip: We didn’t realize until the third day that we could order off the Main Dining Room menu at any meal when our new friends Richard and Randy let us in on the fact. From that point on, we asked for that menu at every meal, and at least one or two people at the table ordered off it.
Other Lunches: Our first lunch was at the Sunset Park Cafe, and it was excellent. They served sandwiches, salads, and desserts. They also bake warm cookies every afternoon around 3:00, but no one in our group who tried them was impressed.
We also had lunch at the buffet just once. We might have tried it a little more often, but the place was so slammed that there was hardly ever an open table. The food I had on the one day we ate there was very good. I just had a hard time deciding what to get. Once I had settled on a Mediterranean lunch (hummus, dolma, etc.) I was fine.
Huge rant here: Something needs to be done about people who have finished their lunch in the buffet, just sitting at tables and in many cases, just staring at their phones. There were even people I saw on two occasions who finished eating, put their dishes on a nearby counter, and started playing cards… while others wandered around looking for tables with food in their hands. That has to stop. All it would take would be for an assistant maitre’d to walk around and ask folks to limit their use of the tables to when they were eating.
I previously wrote about our lunch on the Retreat Deck. Not my favorite by a long shot. Cold food brought from a kitchen too far away. Nothing is worse to eat cold than French fries. They just become conduits of ketchup.
Our two most outstanding meals were at specialty restaurants. Our first night dinner at Trattoria Rossa was a wonderful experience and set the bar for the disappointing week we had at Luminae. The restaurant is easily the best on Solstice right now (at least for my tastes). A massive A+ on the Steve Test. This place (if here in Redmond) could become our go-to venue for dinner. WOW! Just delicious. And, oh, those cannolis.
Our last night’s dinner in Murano was almost as good. The food is fancier than I prefer, but I did have an amazing piece of venison, Celebrity’s signature soufflés (goat cheese appetizer and Grand Marnier for dessert) and everything else that goes with fine French dining.
That said, I had my only letdown in service that night. The sommelier didn’t like me for some reason. He didn’t like Kathleen either. Four of the six of us were drinking wine by the glass. Judy had white, Cathy had champagne, and Kathleen and I were drinking red. THREE different times, the man refilled their glasses and skipped ours. I did my best to catch his eye, coughed, etc. I even asked (one time, after refilling their glasses) if we could get some as well. When I got my venison (which would have gone wonderfully with the cabernet I was drinking), not a single server could be found. I basically ate a really great piece of red meat with water. And then, when he showed up just as the plates were being removed to ask me if I wanted more wine, I told him, “Yes, I did want more wine, WITH MY ENTRÉE.” He acted like he had no idea what I was talking about.
Service
That entire incident brings me to the best thing about any Celebrity cruise, since we went on our first one in November of 2004—the service. We have been on seven different cruise lines, and I have never had service like I have every time I board a Celebrity ship. If everything else onboard was as good as the service, we would never sail with any other cruise line. From the moment we met Melissa in The Retreat waiting area until the second we stepped off the ship, the sommelier in Murano was the only Celebrity crew member who didn’t make me feel incredibly special and that they were truly happy with their jobs.
I want to mention a few that knocked it out of the park, so if you cruise with them, you will know that you are getting the best people at that job.
Our room attendant, Putu, was not only great at his job but truly a great guy who would always ask when we saw him in the halls (and we saw him a lot) if there was anything we needed.
The three Retreat Concierges (MMR=Melissa, Melody, and Rossana) were awesome, fun, and always smiling. They met us as we came aboard and were among the last to see us off. Make sure to tell them we miss them when you see them in the Retreat Lounge.
Of course, the amazing Hilario, our butler, will never be forgotten. He made this trip. And if you are in a suite, make sure you have downloaded the WhatsApp app on your phone before you go. When he met with us on the first day, he added himself to our contact lists, so we could WhatsApp him whenever we needed something. It was amazing how fast he would reply and then follow up in minutes. He also seemed to be everywhere on the ship. I actually think he may have a twin brother. It would not have been the cruise it was without Hilario. And I should say he is overworked because he has far too many staterooms to cover, but he does it magnificently.
Everyone in Luminae was great to us. Except for one person, and she wasn’t just great…she was wonderful. Over our 20+ years of sailing with X, we have been so well taken care of by everyone, but one night I remarked to the Mates that, in that time and across those 24 Celebrity cruises (actually in all 43 of our total cruises), there are certain crew members we will remember forever. Our first bar waiter on the Infinity, Eliseo. The OG Martini Bar bartender, Sudi from Bali. Marta, a wonderful server in multiple restaurants on Century and Galaxy. Christian, who was the assistant maître d’ at Infinity’s United States specialty restaurant. Main Dining Room Asst. maître d’ Jayson, from Africa, whom we sailed with three times, who always remembered us, shared his outside life with us and took such good care of us. The incredible Olexi from Ukraine, who was the greatest bartender of our cruising lives, greeted us like family every time he saw us, and made me fabulous, one-of-a-kind cocktails.
All of these people live in my travel memories, as if we were with them yesterday. And now there’s Mary. Mary does the “scut work” in Luminae. She pours the coffee, brings around the bread and pastries, and clears the tables, all while being one of the most effervescent people I have ever met. A beautiful smile is always on her face, a word or sometimes a song for us, and so much more. She is one of those people you just love from the moment you meet her. Mary will not be in that job for long. She is too good. I can see her as a Retreat Concierge or maybe even the Hotel Manager one day. She is that good. She makes you feel like a Celebrity and will now join our ranks of most memorable people who have taken such good care of us over the years.
No matter what I might say about the cruise line I used to love more than any other, their service and especially their people are and have always been the best.
General overall impressions
Solstice Refurb: The public areas they redid were done wonderfully. The Sunset Park area is so much better than the Glass Show, though I do miss the Lawn Club Grille. I didn’t get to see a show in the Boulevard Lounge or play games in The Parlor—too many people. But the improvements are much better than what was there before—Quasar and some room they used for lectures, the name of which I don’t remember. Both were a waste, and that entire area on deck four is fully revitalized. I can’t speak to the improvements to The Retreat Deck because we have never stayed in a suite on an S-class ship before, but it is very nice. The Retreat Lounge, formerly Michael’s Club, has been vastly improved with better lighting and furnishings. All in all, the public areas have improved significantly.
That said, the staterooms saw little to no improvement. It is almost criminal in today’s world that there are only two plugs in an entire stateroom. TWO! Three, if you count the EU plug. What is up with that? There are USB plugs that I think Bob discovered under the night lights by the bed, but they don’t work. No power to them. Be aware that inside the EU plug there are two USB-C plugs. You have to look for them, but they are there. But anyone who needed a CPAP machine had an extension cord stretched across the room that had to be taped down. That’s nuts. Kathleen and I charge at least three devices each, and if you add in my Mac and my camera’s battery charger, it was really fun (NOT) swapping plugs and making sure everything was charging.
The couch in our stateroom needs replacing, as sitting at either end leaves you fighting to keep from sagging toward the center. It’s just old. Beds were OK. I kind of found the furnishings just blah, besides being old. The Suite seemed darker to me than our verandah staterooms on Viking or Celebrity’s own Flora.
The bathroom is the worst part of the stateroom. When I compare it to our stateroom bathroom on Celebrity’s Flora or any Viking Ocean ship, it comes up wanting. The shower is in a tub, and the tub is raised so high that I had to bend over to use it. If you are over six feet tall, you will have to bend over during every shower. I will say there was plenty of storage in the bathroom, but that didn’t make up for the short shower. Who uses a tub on a cruise ship? It’s a tiny tub.
At least we had plenty of hot water, but I can’t say the same for our friends on the ship’s port side. Our buddy Bob’s suite, almost exactly across the ship from ours, had major hot water problems. When you get a suite, you deserve hot water. To X’s credit, after Bob and Judy endured several days of no hot water in the evenings, they worked hard to fix it. When they couldn’t, for about 4 days, they presented them with future cruise certificates for $1000 US. I am impressed they made things right. Well done, Celebrity.
On an entirely different note, there is one thing we all wish Celebrity would put a stop to. It’s a practice that has been around for years, and it could easily be taken care of with one directive from Celebrity HQ. Crew members should stop begging for ratings. We had our Luminae waiter, our bartenders, our bar waiters in the Retreat Lounge, and the servers in Murano all asking us to give them 10s on the post-cruise survey. When they do that, they automatically get 9s. Their service is outstanding, and I would normally give them all 10s (on the service, not the food), but the begging has to stop. None of our favorite people mentioned above asked us for any rating whatsoever, and we were happy to give them a stack of 10s.
Speaking of the post-cruise survey, this is what I told X when they asked why I said I would no longer be sailing with them and that I would not recommend them to friends and family:
Your ships are too big; we have outgrown you, and you have outgrown us. Too many kids, too many people. We need smaller, quieter ships now that we are older. Apparently, you agree with us, as you no longer market to our age group, who have supported you throughout our cruising lives. I fully realize this is because we will soon stop cruising. But in the meantime, we will continue to cruise. While we believe you still have the best mid-range cruising product, I can sail on a Viking ship for the price of a suite and enjoy myself a lot more. Get rid of the casino, photo gallery, art auctions, and humans under 18, and we might come back. But that’s doubtful. We will miss your people. Your crews have always served us above and beyond any other cruise line, and you treat them well. Kudos. We will still recommend X to people from 40 to 60 who are looking for a great cruise experience at a moderate price, don’t mind paying for many things that are free on other, more expensive lines, and are willing to put up with things we would rather be replaced with places we would prefer to use.
Oh, one last thing. I have complained a lot about how crowded every place on the ship is, and I have been roundly scolded on Cruise Critic because of it. They said that this is not X’s fault that their cruises are so popular. But that’s not my quibble with X. My problem is that Celebrity keeps adding staterooms every time they do any kind of refit. Solstice has increased by more than 54 new staterooms, which, when fully booked, means there were 108 new passengers onboard. They have done the same with the M-class ships and will undoubtedly do so on the rest of the S-class ships. Since they can’t make the ships bigger, this means they will become more crowded. Our experience at the buffet and Sunset Park proves that this has already happened. And that’s sad.
I hope you have enjoyed following along. Come join me on my next trip in early September when I travel by myself to a Scott Kelby Photography workshop in Belgium. The Martini Mates rode again, and we had an awesome time.
But at the laste, as every thing hath ende—Geoffrey Chaucer
