GenerationX

I’m in Fort Lauderdale! MIA baggage claim was already crazy at 9am when we landed. It took a while for luggage for our flight to hit the belt but when it finally did my bags were some of the first off. I had a less than 10 minute wait for a $55 Uber (after 20% tip) from MIA over to Fort Lauderdale to one of my go to pre-cruise hotels, the Hyatt Centric Las Olas . I think this is the first time in all my stays at this hotel that I wasn’t able to get a super early check in, but it’s understandable with the holiday weekend and spring break travel still going on. Plus there are a very limited number of the pool walkout cabana rooms that I book. The nice thing was that they gave me a key card so that I could come and go from the pool as I pleased while I waited and I was also able to just give my last name at the pool bar and the restaurant and have any food or beverage I purchased charged to the room once I checked in (so that I can still get my Hyatt bonus points). After giving the front desk my cell number to text once my room was ready, I went up to the pool and had a margarita from the outdoor bar, returned a couple of work calls, and then headed down to the lobby bar for a little lunch to soak up my morning cocktail intake (after my less than filling breakfast which consisted of the fruit on the side of my weak omelette). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I know hotel bar food is usually pretty underwhelming, but the grilled mahi mahi tacos and housemade French fries at this Hyatt are so good. As I was signing my lunch check around 1pm, I got the text that my room was ready and headed up to do some reading on my patio then take a much needed nap. I’ve just settled in at my table for dinner at 15th street Fisheries. This restaurant has a more casual dining lower level restaurant and bar with live music and waterside patio dining and a quieter, more formal upstairs dining room with a little more upscale menu. Gen Z and I dined here pre cruise last year in the casual dining room and the food was so good, I put a meal in the upstairs dining room on my FLL to dine list. There are so many great restaurant options on Las Olas near my hotel and I originally planned to take advantage of them. Then I remembered that this will be my last cruise out of Fort Lauderdale for a good long while, so I figured I should seize the day. I completely forgot that stone crabs are in season down here right now. There goes my budget for this solo meal. After dinner I think I may go for a little walk down the pier to do some yacht day dreaming. Then when I get back to the hotel cash in my free vodka cocktail voucher that come with my room for a nightcap before heading up to chromecast some Netflix in bed, fill out my health questionnaire in the Celebrity app and rest up for embarkation day. Cheers from the intercostal!

Thank you! You had me at cheeses and the premium wine just sweetened the deal. I’ll be sure to ask about it!

Hi!!! Forgive me if my memory is failing me, but I think we came very close to sailing together at one point but then were thwarted by the COVID monster. I’m so glad to hear you had such a good cruise on Beyond even outside the Retreat. I hope we do get a chance to sail together in the future! Any chance I could convince you guys to Beyond in back to back months and also sail with us on a 10 night Mediterranean out of Rome in October? 😁

Thank you! If you’re interested in trying solo cruising but nervous about it, a good first test/step may be to do a semi-solo. Where you’re in your own cabin but you know someone else sailing who can be your company for meals, activities, etc. when you feel like you need it. Even better if said semi-solo companion is a bit of an expert on Celebrity solo cruising… This suggestion is absolutely NOT an attempt by me to have an excuse to go on another solo cruise [cough].

Riddle me this, American Airlines… How is it that we can put a man on the moon, my car can send me a text message when it senses it’s due for an oil change and I can buy a 4 figure handbag using only my thumb print, but you’re still struggling to find a method to prepare and serve a decent egg dish above the earth’s surface? I mean c’mon now. I follow the luxury travel influencers on Insta. I KNOW what kind of first class meals Emirates is putting out. I get that that’s a whole different ticket price point, but still, I know you can do better. Oh well, at the end of the day, what I’m really concerned about is that our flight left STL as scheduled (woohoo!), I got to see a gorgeous sunrise over the southeast, and I’m only an hour and a half away from landing by the ocean with temperatures 40 degrees higher than what I left in STL. We also have a very upbeat and attentive flight crew. Like 10 seconds after I put the second mini bottle of Tito’s into my breakfast screwdriver, there was our flight attendant putting two more chilled mini bottles on my tray table and adding a little ice to my glass with a big smile on his face. I think this man may be trying to kill me. Or maybe just get me tipsy enough not to complain about that tragic omelette. I don’t know. Either way, it’s Saturday and I’m going on a cruise and I’ve decided to just let it all go and sip my cocktail. Once I land in Miami I’ll grab my bags and an Uber over to FLL to my pre-cruise hotel. Final countdown to Beyond is on!!!

Enjoy the last couple of days of your cruise! Thank you for the heads up on the Veuve dinner. That’s disappointing to hear. Seems like a real miss not to have it on the newest E class ship. I guess I’ll just have to think of another way to spend that OBC.

Happy to help! My kiddo is 10 now but we traveled quite a bit with her when she was small and I remember those days of trying to efficiently pack 45 million toys! I’m actually going to be sailing on the Beyond next week (same ship class as Apex so amenities should be the same if not very similar) and will try to stop by the kids club and ask about toddler time and toys available for check out and will report back here. From my own experience, you may also want to plan to bring extra tipping cash if giving additional cash gratuities at the end of the cruise is something that you typically do. When I sail with my daughter so many crew members bend over backwards to go above and beyond for her and often share with me about their own kids back home. We had an excellent server in the coffee shop on one cruise who over the course of the week told us all about her adorable 4 year old back in the Philippines living with her grandparents while she worked on the ship. She said it’s really hard when she comes home between contracts because sometimes her daughter doesn’t recognize her right away and doesn’t want to call her Mama because she’s not there much. 😭. I was at the ATM on night 6 getting more cash to put in that hard working mama’s envelope!

It’s officially my last day in reality for a whole week! Last night I overheard Jeremy on the phone with his mother in the kitchen and telling her that I’m going away again and saying “yep, my wife has escalated from impulse buying designer shoes and purses to impulse buying whole [expletive] cruises. I should have kept my mouth shut about the shoes and purses.“ 😂 As promised, a little about my plans for this cruise: Our cruise is a 7 night with port stops in Nassau, costa maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. This was one of those bookings that came with generous onboard credit from my TA and Celebrity, which I’ll be spending on some specialty dinners at Eden, Fine Cut, Le Voyage (my favorite dinner last time on Beyond and I cannot WAIT to go back) and Rooftop Grill. I may also cave to the temptation of the veuve clicqot dinner if it is offered on this cruise. I also booked excursions for while the ship is in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Normally in Cozumel my time in port is limited to a quick tequila run since I’ve been there so many times. But on my November beyond cruise a fellow solo cruiser, I believe it may actually have been @Buckeye94 told me about how much fun she had on an excursion to playa mia called salsa y salsa where you attend a Mexican cooking class followed by a salsa dance class all fueled by a margarita open bar. Since I had some credits to spend I’ve decided to give it a try this time. I also still plan to go on a short hunt for a decent price on some Clase Azul. On my last trip to Grand Cayman I did a beach day so this time I decided to mix it up and check out the sea turtle sanctuary instead. Hopefully there is a gift shop (What am I talking about? There is ALWAYS a gift shop!) where I can bring Gen Z back a cute souvenir. I’ll likely also spend some time in the spa and the casino and maybe take in a wine tasting or two. I’ve just checked in for my flight and am off to make an ATM run and shop at the farm & home to make sure all the animals are well stocked on food while I’m away. These little ladies are flying through the chick feed bags lately. I think by the time I get back they’ll have their full feathers in! 20 hours till wheels up for Miami!

FYI I think you may have been given some incorrect information in a couple of the posts above. I’m just off of the Solstice and they did actually have a play room for smaller kids/toddlers with lots of toys where parents could take them to play, it was just during limited hours. Solstice is an older ship with a smaller kids club so I think they operated toddler time in the 3-5 year old camp area during hours when the 3-5 camp wasn’t in session. I’d be shocked if Apex doesn’t have the same if not a bigger/better toddler play area/times, because the newer ships are really designed to cater to a younger demographic (who are more likely to be traveling with small kids) and have much bigger and better Camp at Sea facilities generally. Here’s a pic of the toddler time hours sign. It wasn’t a ton of time (about 3 hours each day) but I think the hours can vary based on the sailing and ship. If you haven’t already, you might also want to check out this Celebrity blog post on cruising Celebrity with a toddler. It’s a couple of years old but most of the info still looks pretty accurate to what I’ve experienced onboard recently. It also mentions that there are toddler time play hours in camp every day and that there are toys and books available to check out. Have a great family cruise! https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/cruise-with-a-toddler

Hello Again CC! Ok I promise, this is the last time you’ll have to hear me go on about my cruises for half a year…on the Celebrity board at least… Anyway, would anyone like to come along with me on my last solo cruising adventure for the year? A little about me and why this cruise: I’m Charla, a married corporate lawyer from outside St. Louis, MO. By the skin of my teeth (as in points for my last cruise posted and status changed literally yesterday) Elite Plus level Celebrity cruiser. When I’m not sailing solo, my cruising companion is usually either my good girlfriend and fellow Celebrity cruise addict, Red, my husband Jeremy or my 10 year old mini me daughter Gen Z. This will be my second cruise on Beyond. Courtesy of Red’s cruise deal sleuthing I sailed on Beyond with her in aqua class last November for Beyond’s first revenue Caribbean sailing. I very quickly fell in love with the ship, but the crowds and crew stress that come with a nearly sold out vessel with lots of VIPs onboard, as well as lots of new crew members starting their first contracts, made it hard to give the service experience a very fair shake. I believe what I said at the end of that live review was that I was going to wait and save some money and try Beyond again in a year once the service kinks worked out, hopefully with the means to check out the Retreat experience while I was at it. Well, thanks to a fare deal alert oh so kindly posted on the board by @NorthStarStateCruiser (thank you again!!!), I didn’t have to wait quite that long! Gen Z has her school commitments and Red was already booked to sail on Summit on 4/22 (and despite my best efforts couldn’t be convinced to try and get away with doing 2 cruises less than a week apart while remaining gainfully employed). Jeremy is saving vacation days for a 10 night Europe cruise we’re planning at the end of the year, so here I am getting a bonus solo cruise! I’m just wrapping up my last half day at the office then will pick Gen Z up from school for a little shopping and pre-trip dinner date. She’s had a Lego store gift card burning a hole in her purse and a 2,000 piece build set she’s had her eye on that I think will keep her from missing me too much. Then I’ll spend tomorrow packing and getting ready for my very early, 5am flight to Miami on Saturday. I’ll also do a post this evening about some of my plans in port and onboard. As always if anyone has specific questions or things they’d like me to check out, don’t be shy to jump in and ask. Looking forward to taking everyone along on another sweet, suite cruise!

Will do! I also ordered a new budget buy evening chic dress for this cruise that is scheduled to arrive on Thursday. Fingers crossed it fits well and if so, with my gloves, I’m planning on doing a whole Breakfast at Tiffany’s inspired look for one formal night.

Signs of a cruising addiction… When you get an unexpected afternoon off due to a canceled meeting and your life productivity agenda consists of: -CC Wrap up Post from Solstice Cruise -Call MSC TA re: Final Payment for July Cruise -Email Celebrity TA re: flights and specialty dining for October Med Cruise -Draft Packing List and CC Intro Post for 4/9 Beyond Solo Cruise Well, I suppose that’s a slight spoiler on future cruise plans, but taking a step back on final thoughts on our Solstice cruise. I think it says something that 10 days after stepping off the ship, Gen Z is still talking about this cruise nonstop. Sunday morning she ambushed Jeremy on his way in from morning chores and informed him that “mama I will be wanting our hot chocolate and mimosa soon. Mr. Budi brings them at breakfast without us even asking”. I rolled over in bed shortly thereafter to be greeted by a less than enthusiastic butler service (pic for evidence). 🤣 I was a bit nervous about sailing on a non-refurbished ship during spring break, especially after experiencing the different atmosphere on my similarly bargain priced equinox cruise last summer. However I found very few if any college/wild party folks and while there were a number of children onboard, and they seemed far better behaved than many of the kids on my summer cruise (who I probably wouldn’t even have felt as comfortable allowing Gen Z to associate with in kids club). The crew have clearly worked very hard to keep solstice up as best they can. However, there were definitely little maintenance issues that could do with a dry dock ASAP. For example, some of the elevators made rattling and creaking noises while in operation (unnerving but I’m sure perfectly safe) and every now and then for an hour or two sewage smells would waft through certain parts of the ship. Also, some of the motion operated doors in and out of the pool deck and solarium occasionally required you to dance half a verse of the cha-cha slide (“slide to the left, slide to the right, take it back now y’all, one hop!”) for them to actually detect your presence and finally open. Nothing that would come close to ruining a cruise for me though, especially at the price I paid for the sailing. Gen Z and I made so many amazing memories on our trip and made some great new friends of all ages and we are both eagerly counting down to our next mommy daughter adventure in July. Which brings me to future cruise plans. For those who aren’t already sick of my voice, in the next 24 to 48 hours I’ll be posting my intro for my live review of my solo cruise on Beyond sailing in just five days! After that, I will be on land and spending a hectic early summer at the office then Gen Z and I will sail again on July 9th for a week on MSC Seascape. Then it’ll be time to save some cash and learn some Italian in preparation for Jeremy and I’s October 10 Night Italy and Greece cruise back on Beyond! Thank you as always to everyone who came along and shared their suggestions and feedback. If anyone had questions that I’ve missed that you’re still interested in, please feel free to re-post and I will be sure to get to them. Thanks again and I look forward to meeting some of you in person on Beyond this weekend!

Thank you! Gen Z’s school doesn’t focus as much on handwriting as I’d like (I guess such is modern education when they know most of the writing the kids will do in their adult life will be typed) so we try to encourage her to make pen pals when she finds friends from other parts of the country/world when we travel. It gives her a fun way to practice writing and stay connected without introducing social media just yet. Plus it’s nice for me to occasionally get a piece of mail in the box that isn’t junk or a bill!

The tracker bracelet seems very cool. They sell them in the shop onboard where you can buy Celebrity t-shirts, cups, etc. The beaded bracelets come in various colors and on the package once you buy it there’s a place to pull it open and there’s a photo and name of the shark you’re tracking and a QR code you scan that takes you to the location tracking site. Gen Z has been begging to go to NYC for some time now. She wants to see a show on Broadway, stay at the Plaza like Eloise (she loved those books when she was little), shop on 5th avenue and visit the Statue of Liberty. In other words, it won’t be a cheap trip, so I’ve been holding off on it for a big occasion. I’m thinking maybe summer after she finishes elementary school. Maybe throw a Bermuda cruise in with it for mom 😁

I’m finally back after a busy few days back at home to finish up my review! Our flight back to STL did actually leave at it’s delayed time, so fortunately we didn’t have to spend an unexpected night in LA (as Jeremy and I did in Miami on our last cruise). Our pilot was able to make some time up in the air, but baggage took forever and we didn’t manage to get home and into bed until about 2am. As you can imagine the next morning when Gen Z and I did awake it was almost lunchtime and we were both somewhat depressed to be back in reality. Jeremy, bless him, did his best all that day to keep us in the lifestyles to which we had become accustomed. In regards to said lifestyle, shall we wind the clock back and talk about our last day on Solstice? After my solarium morning Gen Z and I went to lunch in Luminae. It was a Luminae lunch menu I don’t recall ever having before and I’m a little sad that thus far from the app it doesn’t look like we’ll have it on Beyond in a couple of weeks. The coconut chicken soup was light and refreshing and the lamb chops were perfectly cooked to my requested medium rare with a duo of Moroccan flavored sauces (one spicy and one mild) on the side. Gen Z ordered the grilled shrimp from the MDR menu with a side of fries and was very happy with it. We planned to skip dessert but then we saw the words “chocolate lava cake” on the Luminae dessert menu. We had to order 2 because Gen Z made it clear she had no intention of sharing. How can you go wrong with a nice warm chocolate cake with a molten chocolate center with some well softened vanilla ice cream on the side? After lunch we did a little more packing and then headed up to the Lawn Club for our hot glass class. I booked the class online pre-cruise but the actual day/time of your class has to be scheduled once onboard. After lunch on the first day, I asked Mar the retreat concierge to schedule ours and even only a few hours into the cruise, they were already all booked up until the last sea day, so I wouldn’t recommend dawdling on scheduling if you need a specific day/time. You get to choose which pieces you’d like to make and some are included in the $120 base price of the booking while others carry an up charge. We decided to make a fish for our living room bookshelf ($70 up charge) and a jellyfish paperweight (included in base price) for my office. Well, “we” didn’t end up making anything actually. Gen Z had so much fun making her fish that she also begged to be allowed to take my turn and make my jellyfish for me. Artwork is more special when it’s made by your kid anyway, right? The glass class staff were very nice and great with kids and it was still very entertaining to just sip a glass of champagne and watch Gen Z work. The experience was all she talked about on the flight home. I think she’s discovered a new interest. I’ve already started looking into glass art studios in STL that have a kids program. The glass pieces had to cool slowly in an oven overnight so since we made ours the last full day, they were available for us to pick up at guest services the next day rather than back at the studio. A tip for those flying for the cruise and doing the glass class: I recommend packing them for the return trip in a personal item carry on where they can be easily accessed and put back. I was very glad I was carrying ours in my shoulder tote bag. The x-ray scanner read them oddly and the TSA had to pull them out and fully unwrap and inspect/test them. The hot glass folks wrapped them very well, but I also wrapped each in one of my light sweaters for extra padding in my bag. After our art time at sea we dressed and headed to the rock n roll production show. For the sensory folks following, this was the only show where the sound volume and lights kind of bothered Gen Z. I guess a quiet rock n roll show doesn’t make much sense though. Once we put her headphones on and moved to seats more over a little to the side of the theater where the flashing lights weren’t as directly in her face, Gen Z was much better and really enjoyed the music and dancers. After the show we headed to our second dinner in Tuscan Grille. This time the food was somewhat improved, but still not the best Tuscan dinner I’ve ever had. I was determined not to leave the ship without having some decent calamari so I ordered it for the starter again and this time it was much better prepared. Gen Z once again devoured every spec of her bronzino. For my main course, I decided to splurge a little bit and have the dry aged porterhouse with the $22 up charge. When it came I saw the size and said to myself “so THIS is where they’re hiding the REAL steaks”. It was nice and thick, tender, juicy and oh so flavorful. It was a huge steak and I only got through half of it, and my server offered to wrap it up for me to take back to the room fridge. I had him cut it up for me before wrapping in foil and it made an excellent post-martini bar late night canapé later. This time I went for one of my other favorites, the lobster rigatoni, for my side. The good news is this time the pasta was cooked through (a little bit past al dente though) and the sauce was nice. The bad news is that there were maybe 4 tiny pieces of lobster in the whole thing. Our service was once again prompt and very friendly. In fact I think that a common theme throughout the cruise was that service was really great. But I’m getting ahead of myself again. Sharing some pics from our last day of fun and in the next day or so I’ll do a final post on overall thoughts on the cruise and future cruise plans.

Friends I am beginning to think that there is a third certainty in life and it is American Airlines flight complications. Just as our bus pulled up to LAX I received the dreaded notification that our flight home has been pushed out nearly 2 hours to a 7:30pm departure which won’t land us in STL until 1am. Luckily tomorrow isn’t a school day so Gen Z will be able to catch up on sleep (and since our bodies are on LA time it won’t feel like she’s up very much later than she’s been partying in camp at sea the past couple of nights). I know many don’t see the value in an admirals club membership but to me it’s priceless especially in situations like this and especially when traveling with a child. The thought of trying to kill 4 hours hanging out in the bustle, uncomfortable seats and expensive restaurants of the LAX terminal with a semi-exhausted kid sends shivers up my spine. This is my first time in the Terminal 4 admirals club and while it’s on the smaller side, I like it. Lots of open windows, a quiet area (where we’ve set up camp) and a few more menu options than some of the other clubs. Gen Z is having a second late lunch and relaxing with the iPad while I do some catch up posting. This morning after a final breakfast in Luminae and delivery of Gen Z’s custom made thank you envelopes (I think this is my first cruise where I didn’t see our cabin steward or our butler the last morning, so we just left theirs in the room), we said goodbye to her cruise bestie who gave her a goodbye gift from the ship’s gift shop of a bracelet that lets her track a real shark in the wild. Her mom and I connected on FB and Insta so that we could swap addresses and the girls can become penpals. I know, sweetness overload. Then we headed to the celebrity theater to meet our group for our post cruise excursion. The terminal was using facial recognition so customs was lightening fast at 8:30am with very little line for US passport travelers. After getting our bags and clearing customs we were lead out to the coach for our excursion: the Beverly Hills, Malibu and Santa Monica sight seeing bus tour. The bus looked brand new and spotless and had full seatbelts and phone charging ports at each seat. I’m not sure who got a bigger thrill out of Beverly Hills, Gen Z or me. Our bus parked near a park with public restrooms and we had 45 minutes to explore Rodeo Drive on our own. Remember my whole philosophical musing at the beginning of the review about cruising > things? Well, I had to remind myself of that during our entire walk. I swear the Dior is even more beautiful glistening in the California sunlight. It’s a really good thing we only had 45 minutes and that I have final payment for our July cruise and Jeremy and I’s Rome flights to book next month. I could have done serious damage to our financial future. As it was, all I purchased was a popsicle for Gen Z at an ice cream truck outside of Gucci (and even that cost $7, welcome to Beverly Hills, folks). After Beverly Hills we took a drive up and down the pacific coast highway while our awesome tour guide Jon played beach boys music and told us about the history of the LA area and its different neighborhoods and cultures. He even sprinkled in some fun Hollywood gossip like pointing out the church where Elizabeth Taylor had her 7th wedding and the bar and grill where Mel Gibson had several too many before making an absolute disgrace of himself to the LAPD and the world. The visibility was so good we could even see Catalina Island and the site of our much less enjoyable excursion a few days before. In Santa Monica we had an hour and a half to either go to the amusement park on the pier or check out the shopping district. It looked like the pier was shoulder to shoulder crowds of people so Gen Z and I browsed in Nordstrom and went to a few souvenir shops in the shopping district then grabbed some very good NYC style pizza at a little hole in the wall by the slice shop that our guide recommended. Everyone in our group got back to the bus a few minutes early so our guide and driver threw in a quick drive through Venice Beach to show us the murals, canals and the famous Muscle Beach. When we got to the airport the bus made stops to drop off at each terminal and we arrived at the AA check in desk a little after 2pm. I was very happy with the excursion for the price I paid (especially since when we left the ship Uber was showing surge pricing to LAX of almost $100 pre-tip. This excursion wasn’t much more than that (free for me as I booked it with OBC) and it definitely beat spending all morning in the airport (and what I now know would’ve been an even longer day killing time here). I’m going to go grab another cocktail then will start working on my reports on our last night onboard and final thoughts on the cruise.

Current Situation: Gen Z is having her last kids club hurrah and I’m having my last martini bar social. While sitting here I was messaging with Jeremy about plans to pick us up from the airport tomorrow and just how salty I am about another great cruise coming to an end. He was quick to remind me that his sympathy for me is very slightly north of zero because 2 weeks after he picks me up from the STL airport he’ll be dropping me off there again to sail solo on Beyond. I was prepping my thumbs to rapidly type a text back accusing him of being dramatic till I actually looked at my calendar. Yep, I will literally be turning around and flying out for my next celebrity cruise precisely 2 weeks from tomorrow. What can I say? My personal motto is “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing” and Metaverse cruising ain’t gonna do it for me.

I will ALWAYS drink martinis at 11pm for the sake of the children. That’s just the kind of compassionate person that I am. 😂 I have that documentary in my prime queue and have been debating whether to watch it before we sail. I feel like it’s either going to make me very excited or terrified about our Seascape cruise.

Quick Update: If you see me on a cruise ship with a cosmo in my hand and I’m NOT smiling, it’s probably because tomorrow is disembarkation day. Just a heads up for those sailing this itinerary soon, when I went to the ATM after lunch to pull some extra tipping funds, neither the casino nor guest services one was working. When I reported it to guest relations, the gentleman behind the counter said that the satellite link is down and that “this often happens on our sail back to California” and there’s nothing to be done but see if/when it comes back online. Fortunately I keep some emergency cash in the safe so worst case if it’s not working by tomorrow morning, I can use that for additional gratuities envelopes, but will be sad not to be able to be as generous as I’d like to be. For those sailing soon who usually give extra tips, as much as I prefer not to have large sums of additional cash around for any significant period of time, you may want to hit the ATM while the ship is in its last port and then keep the money in your safe rather than waiting until the last day sail back to LA. Gen Z is having one last row at camp at sea with her friend group (some of them won’t be in the evening session goodbye party due to early disembark and flights tomorrow) and since I’m holding off a little on envelope stuffing in hopes of an evening ATM resurrection, I’m using the time to do some of our packing while there’s only one salty woman in the room souring the mood. Our hot glass appointment got moved to 5:20pm so once I get a couple of suitcases tackled, I’ll go get another resentment martini and maybe burn a little bit of OBC on a slot machine till it’s time to pick her up.

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.

My dad always says the only thing worse than a liar is a bad liar. 🤣

Currently in a Celebrity Suite on Solstice and we have 2 tubes of lip balm in our bathroom. We also had them in a sky suite on Apex last month.

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.

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.

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.