cruiserchuck

On Solstice last month, the ship was full, as were all the buffet stations at lunch and dinner. The dishes we tried were generally good.

We just put a hold on an upcoming cruise on Riviera. Meals served lukewarm or cold is one of my biggest concerns on cruises. I hope Oceania gets their act together soon. We usually sail Celebrity or HAL. We have done one Oceania cruise before, and enjoyed it. With the extraordinary fares, the rates are very competitive with Celebrity/HAL. We also notice similar comments about food/service slipping on the Celebrity/HAL boards.

When we did a roundtrip Celebrity cruise from Southhampton a while back, they featured spotted dick in the Oceanview cafe. I did not try it.

The text quoted is confusing, since it mentions the Juice bar under complimentary dining, but there is a charge for many juice drinks.

The New York steak meals that were on the Blu menu the last two nights of our recent Solstice cruise were better than any steak we previously had on Celebrity. We had sailed in Aqua about 10 times and in the Resort/Luminae once prior to the shutdown. So it is not all gloom and doom regarding the food.

We saw many decorated doors on our floor on our recent Solstice cruise.

Cannnot tell you. I was sworn to secrecy. 😀

On Solstice last month, I noticed a few windows that had condensation, apparently between panes of glass on the windows. One of the big windows in Blu was always opaque due to condensation.

On our Solstice cruise from Los Angeles last month, they did give priority boarding to Aqua class. We had a 12:30 pm assigned boarding time, but arrived early, and were able to board at about 11:10 am. They started boarding at about 10:30 am for suites, at 11:00 am for disabled/wheelchairs, and at 11:10 for Elite Plus/Aqua.

This is how we did it on our recent cruise on Solstice.

On Solstice last month, there were many many more lounge chairs than I have ever seen before on a S class ship. They were literally all over the place, including in front of the gym. With so many chairs available, there seemed to be less chair hogging.

We noticed that Oceania has real good fares on some upcoming cruises, which is why I was reading reviews about them. We may try Oceania again, especially since their prices are very competitive with Celebrity on some cruises. There are many recent posts complaining about the food on Celebrity, but on our Solstice cruise last month, the food in Blu, the buffet, and the MDR was as good as ever. There must be differences in the food quality on the various Celebrity ships.

Are they smaller portions, or just both entrees served at the same time?

Based on the amount of food I eat on cruises, I believe the fats/sugars are much more likely to make me sick/dead than drinking brown water. On my recent cruise on Solstice, I noticed that the water from the faucet was warm all the time. I stopped drinking it, and drank bottled water only in the cabin.

I was looking at recent posts on the Oceania board and recent reviews of Oceania cruises, and there are many comments about cutbacks and declining quality of the food. We cruised on Oceania once, and did not think the food quality was worth the price increase vs. Aqua/Blu on Celebrity.

Cruised in the US a few weeks ago. No masks required. Saw almost no passengers or crew wearing masks.

The Terms and Conditions provide that you waive the right to pursue a class action, and that in most cases, you waive the right to file any lawsuit, and instead must pursue arbitration. Any class action lawsuit would have no merit.

In the US, car insurance is governed by the States, not the Federal government. Some states do not require car insurance. https://www.carinsurance.com/Articles/do-all-states-require-car-insurance.aspx

On our recent 7 day cruise on Solstice, there was only one menu (with alternatives) for the week. Both the app and the menu outside the restaurant never changed.

Yes, the elite happy hour event is now at most bars on the ship. Between 5:00 pm and 7:0 pm, you show your room card to the bartender and you can get a drink. There was some confusion on my recent Solstice cruise about what beers were included. I never saw a listing of the included drinks at any of the bars.

Since the tables are very close to each other in the MDR, you could also have picked it up from any of the nearby tables. We returned from the Solstice on April 15. We wore masks a lot during the first day, but stopped beginning on the second day. Since we were spending about six hours a day eating and/or drinking, we figured we were unmasked too much for the mask to make a difference. We did not get sick on the cruise. I would estimate that only one out of 50-100 passengers wore masks, and virtually no crew did.

The menu will be on the Celebrity app. I am not sure how far in advance of the cruise the information is on the app.

Celebrity is not considered a luxury cruise line within the industry.

The only difference is the location on the ship. The premium cabins are more central on S class ships. They used to be designated A1 and A2. Some folks used to prefer the lower priced A2 aft cabins on S class ships since they are under other cabins and not the pool like most A1 cabins were.

We have taken cruises from San Diego to Mexico in December several times. It has been choppy the last night returning to San Diego every time. It has been smooth for the rest of the cruise each time.