On Solstice later this week- some questions on drink package and room service

Hello everyone- going on a 10 day Solistice cruise this week and can’t wait! We’ve only done 2 cruises so far and both where on Royal Carribbean but one from the US and one from the UK so never been on an “Aussie” cruise and never been on Celebrity so we’re super excited!

 

We’ve read through many a review and postings on here but still have a few questions that hopefully some of you could shed some light on. Please accept my apologies if some of these have already been answered elsewhere and I was too silly to find it :halo:

 

First off, we are BIG drinkers and like the good stuff so the Premium Drinks Package is an absolute no brained for us. It’s all paid, done and dusted and the cost already forgotten so now about the actual drinking ;) From my research, I understand that Celebrity’s policy is the same as RCC, if you drink anything above the $13 price cap, you simply pay the difference. Would this also work for room service orders- do you then have to tell them in advance that you got a package or will they know from your cabin number that all booze is free for you up to $13 a pop? Or do you have to leave the cabin to get your Bloody Mary from some bar in the morning?

 

Apropos room service, i see at various points that apparently you can order items from the main dining room, is this correct? We’re in Concierge Class if that helps. It doesn’t seem to be an “official” published benefit so I find it hard to believe but if true, that would be amazing!

 

And a question on available drinks- what’s the Champagne situation on Celebrity? And I mean Champagne champagne, not done Chandon-crap from Victoria or random Prosecco and the likes. Is proper French champagne readily avsilable and if so, at what price points typically? We’re more than happy to pay the gap above the $13 cap but it would be nice to know on advance what we’re in for (on our last RCC it was “only” Moët everywhere on the ship and that was $5 per glass from memory). Also, what about Cider, is that easily to get and if he’s, which brands do they have on board? I often feel much more like a cold glass of Cider by the pool instead of those crazily sweet hangover-inducing I’ve cocktails but maybe that is just me :p

 

Finally- dress codes and music variety on ththe ship: We’re three gay guys in our 30ies and definitely don’t intend to frock up in a suit but will happily wear a dress shirt and nice designer jeans on the evening chic nights. I read somewhere that T-shirts are never allowed in the main dining room which sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, I don’t even OWN more than two or three collared shirts! Given we’re traveling from Australia, I could very well imagine the occasional guest to rock up in thongs (flip flops for non-Aussies, not lingerie) and singlet which I don’t intend to do but would I get away with a nice clean T-shirt on a normal dinner night? How about fashionable shorts or is that stretching I too far? I’m just hoping that I don’t have to go and go last minute shopping for some cord pants that i’d never wear again afterwards, only to then see dozens of Aussies in things and boarders at dinner every night. :rolleyes:

 

And to finish off- music. On the Royal Carribbean Cruises, we always found the music to be leaning very much towards what we’d call “Old people music” (sorry, I don’t mean to offend, each to their own) so anything from the Swing Quartet to Elvis and Phil Collins or, maybe even worse, rock music :eek:

Given that Celebrity talks about modern sophistication wherever they can, are there any venues where we can expect house music, loungy kinda tunes or electronica? We already know that we’ll have to endure live music by the pool etc. but maybe there are some bars that play more clubby and modern stuff? Would be great to know, thanks!

Oh sorry, two more questions on the drinks: Will we be able to use the wine bar with its dispensing machines if we have the Premium Drinks package or would we be charged there (and hence be really stupid to do so)? And also after recent trips to Russia, I’m quite keen for a little Vodka tasting session at Crush Bar though I realise that most of the time this will be just full of people from the Martini Bar. Any advice on this, would it be a good idea to go there to taste through their huge looking variety of Vodkas? And do they still sell Caviar there? In many older posts they seem to at least used to, I wonder if that’s still on (no problem paying $150 for real Caviar with all the trimmmings to accompany the Vodkas)? Thanks again!

Your Premium Drink Package cannot be used with the mini-bar in your cabin, room service or the mechanical wine dispensers. You will pay the full price with these three "venues."

 

For drinks in excess of $13 you pay the difference + 18% of the difference - e.g. $15 drink will cost you $2.36.

 

Hopefully others will be able to address your other questions.

 

Have a great cruise.

Your Premium Drink Package cannot be used with the mini-bar in your cabin, room service or the mechanical wine dispensers. You will pay the full price with these three "venues."

 

For drinks in excess of $13 you pay the difference + 18% of the difference - e.g. $15 drink will cost you $2.36.

 

Hopefully others will be able to address your other questions.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Ah okay, thanks for that! I now remember that this must be the reason I have always done a bar run while we waited for room service breakfast on our previous cruises so that must be the same then.

 

At Cellar Masters, can you still drink wine there on the package of you get it from a staff member in the evening hours? Or is the whole venue taboo, regardless of whether you use the dispensing machine or order from someone? Thanks again!

I believe any drink ordered in a bar from a bartender will be covered by your package.

Yes, you may order dinner from the MDR for room service. It will have to be during regular MDR hours.

No shorts in the MDR but I suspect that a nice T shirt will fly.

I don't drink, but my occasional cabin mate brings her own champagne. So that may tell you something about the quality of the champagne on board.

Yes, you can get wine from the staff cellar masters with a drink package. As stated you can't use your package for room service, mini bar or any self service device (which I think are gone now anyway). Makes sense since the ship really has no control over who is consuming the alcohol. I can't answer you question on the bubbly (I drink scotch, the kind that people who are gonna die penniless drink;p). They should have one or two ciders. No idea what they will have down there, in the US they have Angry Orchard.

 

The vodka bar really isnt a vodka bar. It's just a corner of the martini bar where the put a lot of bottles of vodka on ice. There is no bartender at it. You will need to order from a waiter (good luck) or take a few steps to the martini bar.

 

Music, hmm I think you might be a bit disappointed here. The music is going to range from 50's to modern but you are not going to find club music unless the DJ in Quasor is on his game. We did one cruise on the Eclipse where the DJ played a lot of Euro-dance music. But as soon as he put it on the club would empty. Lately they have not even been using Quasor night club on some ships and if it's still on the Solstice it probably wont open till late (somewhere between 10 and midnight). There will be a house band and a DJ. House band will usually play in the Sky Lounge from 10 to around midnight then the DJ will come on or he will be in Quasor. The "fun factor" and music depends on the crowd. We've been on some cruises where there was a good number or party animals that would go hard till all hours of the morning and others where after 11pm the ship just went to bed. We are on the cruise after you and I'm hoping it's a lively crowd on that one. Unfortunately I find the longer cruises tend to be primarily older guests. And our last NZ/AUS cruise was an absolute snore fest, but that was on a much smaller ship and a decade ago. You probably won't have to endure much music by the pool. Once or twice a day someone might play for 45min and they don't crank it up. Bring a bluetooth speaker! That's what we do.

Edited March 19, 2018 by TFLG

Hi there Sydneyberlin,

 

We have just come off a 16n Auckland to Perth cruise on the Solstice. I can help with some of your questions but not all. I'm sure there will be some far more in the know then me who will help out some more.

 

Firstly, let me tell you about us. We are a couple in our late 50's and our two kids, 24 & 22, came with us. We may be oldish in years but we are young in attitude and at heart.

 

1. Yay!! Someone else who admits to being a big drinker - at least on holidays :D We had the Classic package which was fine for us. On the odd occasion we drank something over our price limit, then yes, we paid the difference. As for room service drinks - don't know. We brought 2 bottles of wine per cabin on board (we had two cabins)

 

2. Champagne or cider: We didn't drink champagne but did have cider. There may be more options but the only one we were given was Strongbow.

 

3.Dress code: No shorts, thongs, Tshirts in main dining room. We all wore long pants (jeans or smart casual) or dresses (not son or hubby of course ) husband and son got by with 3 or 4 collared shirts - although we went to the buffet on port days. Even on chic nights, as long as you are smart casual it's fine. I didn't put my tiara on once.

 

4. Ah - music. As I said, we are in our late 50's with kids I 20's. One of the our biggest bug bears was the music. Poolside live music was so-so. definitely not upbeat, more like have a snooze on the lounge chair style.

The live music in the Atrium on deck 3 was varied but never any sort of modern. Plus, something we found we disliked with the ship layout, many of the other bars are centered around that area but on higher decks eg. Martini bar, Cellarmasters, Passport bar so you cannot escape that music if you don't like it....and it is inescapably loud. Good for jive, ballroom dancing etc, which was on just about every night. Late night club/dance music - not on our cruise. A number of nights we went down to Qasar club only to find it empty bar the barman, who was shutting up shop. He actually felt so bad for our son, he said he wished he could take him down to the staff bar for some young peoples fun, but of course he isn't allowed to do that, so he didn't. Our son got of the ship early in Adelaide because he was so bored ;)

 

It is a beautiful ship, we did have a relaxing cruise, saw lovely places and we may well have just been unlucky with the age demographic and number of zimmer frames we had to dodge (no offence intended, we will all get there one day) The service on all counts was very, very good. It just wasn't a lot of fun on the ship but that obviously doesn't mean the same will apply for you.

 

One really good fun thing we did was the "Amazing Race challenge". There were 2 rounds, we came 2nd the first time and 3rd in the final. We were beaten both times by a couple of young gay guys from Canada - they were great fun. Those guys were travelling with a group of 6 or so and when we were chatting, they said they were enjoying themselves so horses for courses I guess.

 

I hope I haven't put you off too much but I just tried to be truthful answering your questions according to our experience, bearing in mind we are not young ourselves, even if that means ruffling a few old feathers. It is what it is.:)

 

No doubt you will have a great time just being with friends, away on holiday, on the ocean and with a drinks package - that's gotta help ;p

 

All the best

 

Jo

Thanks a lot for all the replies so far, the Vodka bar is a bit of a bummer, I was hoping we might be able to bring our package to good use and do a proper Russian-style Vodka and beer feast. Maybe we still can at some off hour.

 

Speaking of off hours, we're usually the kind of people who end up in the nightclub or, on really trashy nights, at the casino bar until we almost fall of the chair and then wonder why we miss breakfast the next day. So hopefully it won't be too tame a cruise (don't worry- we can handle A LOT without becoming a nuisance to others and if I feel it's getting there, then I am off to the cabin with my nightcap Malt in hand).

 

And with the music- we kinda expected that. On one of the RCC ships there was a DJ who switched between hip hop on some days (nope!) and very commercial Avici-style dance music the other. At least there sometimes were some beats as the rest of the ship was awfully rock-focused: They had "We will rock you" as a musical which was one of the worst show I've ever seen but worse even, somehow this meant that the entire ship had a focus on Rock. And not the bearable Queen kinda rock either for most part which was just too much for us to take but I bet lots of fellow cruisers were delighted to hear Aerosmith and Metallica while sipping their Martinis :-0

Thanks Jo- that all makes sense, we're usually quite good at making our own party, especially if there are unlimited drinks and good food involved ;-) Though I must admit, we'll be with your son with regards to the nightclub- that sounds indeed very disappointing!

Hi Sydneyberlin, We are on the same cruise this week. Talk to your sommelier on the first night about what Celebrity Life events are on for wine, port, champagne, and Vodka & Cavier tastings/classes. We attended a number of the events last years cruise but not the Vodka & Cavier but hope it will be offered this cruise.

Hi Sydneyberlin, We are on the same cruise this week. Talk to your sommelier on the first night about what Celebrity Life events are on for wine, port, champagne, and Vodka & Cavier tastings/classes. We attended a number of the events last years cruise but not the Vodka & Cavier but hope it will be offered this cruise.

Which actually brings up another question- these kind of events are always paid for so what happens with someone on the drinks package? Can we still participate in, let's say, a Vodka tasting and the vodkas will come from our package or will be need to pay the whole thing regardless of the drinks package? Thanks a lot again all, very helpful!

Unfortunately, those events are not covered in part by the drinks package - you would have to pay the whole cost of the class.

Unfortunately, those events are not covered in part by the drinks package - you would have to pay the whole cost of the class.

Okay, I feared that might be the case! In other words, it would be quite silly to participate in any of these if we could just order unlimited numbers of various vodkas on the package. I’d much rather do that and then pay extra for a portion of Caviar- if thar’s an option at all! :confused:

Okay, I feared that might be the case! In other words, it would be quite silly to participate in any of these if we could just order unlimited numbers of various vodkas on the package. I’d much rather do that and then pay extra for a portion of Caviar- if thar’s an option at all! :confused:

 

Yes, no idea why they don't include those events in the drink package. Totally stupid to pay for drinks when you've already paid for drinks....:rolleyes: Be sure to try the cocktails at the world class bar. The bartenders can seem uptight but once you get to know them they usually loosen up. They have some interesting cocktails. Also Sushi on 5 has some great cocktails!:cocktail::tropical-drink::whiskey-glass: I think the only place on the ship that sells Caviar is Murano, so if you want some, bring your own. You might be able to find some in one of the ports. Then sit up at the sunset bar on the back of the ship and enjoy it while you sail out of port (with a cocktail or three of course;p).

Yes, no idea why they don't include those events in the drink package. Totally stupid to pay for drinks when you've already paid for drinks....:rolleyes: .

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one thinking like that! And thanks a lot for the tips, we'll sure be checking out each and every single one of the bars as we've noticed that often the less busy ones can be the best! :cool:

Fear enough:) each to their own. We take it we won't be seeing you at any of the classes then - for us we are enjoy the learning component of the tastings. Enjoy the cruise.

Fear enough:) each to their own. We take it we won't be seeing you at any of the classes then - for us we are enjoy the learning component of the tastings. Enjoy the cruise.

Not to worry, I hope you enjoy them! If we hadn't paid for the package already, I'd be more than curious to attend some of them- just won't be paying for alcohol twice, that's all :cool:

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one thinking like that! And thanks a lot for the tips, we'll sure be checking out each and every single one of the bars as we've noticed that often the less busy ones can be the best! :cool:

 

Most cruises that you can often find a quieter bar with a member of staff who will go ‘above and beyond’ to try to make your cruise special. If you become friendly with a member of staff and mention a particular drink (cider, vodka...) you would like to try they will do their best to find it for you. If they do not generally stock it themselves they will try to get it for you or let you know a bar that does stock it. The pool bars early evening are often still open but quiet after a manic day....

 

We loved our Solstice trips on both our down under cruises. We found the mainly Australian guests good fun and one of the most well mannered and polite groups we have ever met. They did dress smartly for dinner in the MDR...few suits but lots of smart jeans/trousers and nice short sleeved shirts, ladies in nice sundresses or cocktail dresses. There was varied age mix.

 

Re drinks in your room. Ask your room attendant to empty the payable minibar. On the first few days take unopened beers and sodas to your room and stock it yourself...common practice. You can pay for a bar set up in your room but it is quite expensive....An alternative would be to save an empty water bottle and again, first few days take a few straight vodkas back to your room and pour them into your bottle. Your room attendant will bring you ice daily. Problem solved.

 

Decent Champagne, if remember correctly, started at about $24....I suggest you each take two bottles on board if it is a favourite tipple. Your room attendant will put it on ice for you or you can enjoy in any dining venues paying a corkage fee of (I think) $20....I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. If you enjoy good food why not book Murano’s one night, take your bubbly in and enjoy with caviar....Worth paying more sometimes for something special....

 

You will find the ambiance on Celebrity much more relaxed than on RC....the pool area is quieter and calmer, no pushing in gamesand screaming which we have experienced on RC. Bars in the evening can be lively but we have never seen them rowdy. I think you will find your cruise enjoyable but in a different, more laid back way, than your RC experiences. Hope you enjoy!

Decent Champagne, if remember correctly, started at about $24....I suggest you each take two bottles on board if it is a favourite tipple. Your room attendant will put it on ice for you or you can enjoy in any dining venues paying a corkage fee of (I think) $20....I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. If you enjoy good food why not book Murano’s one night, take your bubbly in and enjoy with caviar....Worth paying more sometimes for something special....

 

You will find the ambiance on Celebrity much more relaxed than on RC....the pool area is quieter and calmer, no pushing in gamesand screaming which we have experienced on RC. Bars in the evening can be lively but we have never seen them rowdy. I think you will find your cruise enjoyable but in a different, more laid back way, than your RC experiences. Hope you enjoy!

 

Great advice with the drinks in the room, thanks a lot! And you will be happy to hear that we've already booked a three nights specialty dining package, twice Murano and once Tuscan Grill (we have so much great authentic Asian food here in Australia that we feel it would be a bit of a waste). We also intend to go off the ship in Noumea to enjoy a proper authentic French lunch there while we have a the chance. Glad to hear about the differences to RCC, sounds exactly like what we were hoping for!

We are currently on Solstice on the cruise just prior to your cruise. We get off in Sydney tomorrow morning. Wonderful ship! The premium drink package goes up to $15.50 per drink. You pay the difference for anything over it. You might enjoy the premium spirits in the World Class Bar- most priced at- you guessed it- $15.50. Same for the Martini bar - but it does get very crowded every night before the two dinner times. Cellar Masters on Solstice does not have the wine dispensers. Just humans! Decent selection of wines and they do have special premium tastings that you sign up and pay for that. If you are into Craft Beer Cellar Masters has the best selection. Good call on Tuscan Grill and Murano - they were excellent. Silk Harvest was disappointing. Our cruise was mostly older retired folks- we were a bit younger (59 and 60). Very few younger couples and no children that I could see. This is typical for Celebrity destination type itineraries for longer cruises (ours was 16 days). Mostly retired people who have the time- particulary when schools are is session no families. A bit different in winter in the Caribbean where you get more of a mix like RCCL. Entertainment mix was really all over the map. Something for everybody but still geared to an older crowd. Note that much of the entertainment was sourced from Australia for the most part pretty good. A few from the UK. No acts from the US.

We are currently on Solstice on the cruise just prior to your cruise. We get off in Sydney tomorrow morning. Wonderful ship! The premium drink package goes up to $15.50 per drink. You pay the difference for anything over it. You might enjoy the premium spirits in the World Class Bar- most priced at- you guessed it- $15.50.

Thanks a lot for the advice! That all doesn't sound too bad, we've already made peace with the fact that we'll have to make it our own party most likely. We were looking to get away from the screaming children kinda mess we've encountered on RCC and our lifestyle preferences (apart from music choice, that is) certainly match a retired crowed better than young families. So I am confident that we'll have a jolly good time with nice food and quality drinks.

Enjoy the last day of your cruise! :cool:

Hello everyone, we're back from our cruise and thought we post the actual answers to all those questions that we had beforehand so that it may help some of the other cruisers our here!

 

First off, the Premium Drinks Package actually had a cap of $15.50 a drink and indeed you simply pay the difference if a drink is higher which pretty much only happens with nice wines/champagnes or super premium spirits.

 

With regards to ordering room service from the Main Dining room, this indeed worked though this benefit doesn't get mentioned anywhere in the offical stuff from Celebrity and the menu is also not listed on the TV so you have to first call up to get the menu delivered to the room (which took hours usually so I'd recommend to do this way ahead during the day) and then could only order the items on the phone (during MDR hours, that is). If you mix standard room service items and items from the MDR, then you most likely get two separate deliveries with the MDR one taking much much longer in our experience than the standard stuff.

 

On the question about available drinks and the Champagne situation on Celebrity: The standard stuff they like to pour you is the usual awful Aussie or US-grown Chandon stuff or, worse even, some horrid Prosecco or French non-Champagne bubbly. However, there is indeed a proper French champagne readily available in both the Wine bar and the MDR that is priced at exactly $15 a glass so included in the Premium drinks package. It was called "Montaudon" and not that great in taste but at least proper champagne from the Champagne region in France like it should be. Unfortunately, towards the end of our cruise, they ran out of it (even though it was well hidden in most menus and staff always tried to pour you some of the cheaper stuff if you didn't specifically asked for this very champagne by name), like they did with far too many drinks which was annoying. The other readily available champagne was Perrier-Jouet but this one was priced at around $22 per glass so we didn't bother. With regards to other drinks, we had looked at many menus posted online but in reality, they turned out to beuseless on an Aussie cruise as most of the beers had been swapped withdelicious Bogan-delights like VB or XXXX, yikes. While all the menu cards stilltold you there nice beers like Blue Moon or Sam Adams available, unfortunatelythis was a lie- I tried every single bar and the only thing I could find wassome rather odd leftover Sam Adams ale which I didn’t like. Luckily, you couldget Heineken and Beck’s at most bars so I was happy with these. Cider on offer was usually Strongbow that had a big British flag on it but was brewed in Belgium rather.

 

Finally- dress codes and music variety on ththe ship: The music turned out to be the biggest bug bear for us. The average age on this ship was totally removed from all the happy mid 40ies and early 50ies couples in Celebrity's advertising material, the average age on this ship was actually decades older that what Celebrity shows intheir advertising collateral. I didn’t mind it quite so much as I findmost of those oldies to be very friendly and polite but my slightly youngerpartner and our friend found the old age rather depressing. One bad side effectof this which turned out to be the biggest issue with this entire cruise wasthe music played on the ship. Wherever you go, nothing but music for ourparents’ generation or even older. And regardless of this rather old averageage, we still had dozens of the usual screaming babies on board, on once instance we even had to endure a smelly diaper change in the middle of the Solarium "Adult only" pool! Due to the age of cruisers, even during the Silent Disco night you had the choice between Motown (what the heck…),80ies and “Top 40”. The two latter styles were were US-focused, no trace ofsome modern dance music, house, techno, trance, anything like that- nope, not even "Disco" hilariously. As aresult, the Nightclub, Qasar, was always dead empty unless there was Karaoke onwhich was certainly not our thing. On the pool deck, they often even played Americancountry rock which was just deadly and some of the live musicians playing… Iwon’t go into more details but the music on ship was just absolute horror forus but I am sure the older folks would have liked it.

 

Saying all this and despite the criticism, we still had a good time, met some lovely people and great staff, enjoyed the food and all the alcohol that we definitelyindulged in too much and all in all had a great time. So good actually thatregardless of all the complaints, we went into the “Book your next cruise”office on the ship to put the deposit down for a cruise through the Greek Islands next year on Celebrity’s new Edge ship. If you're interested, we've posted a whole trip report in the trip reports section which includes a lot of the good as well as the bad in much more detail.

Thanks for your comments. We were on the 16 night Aus & NZ cruise on Solstice before you. Awesome cruise for us. Our cruise had a lot of retired folks from the USA like me, quite a few retired folks from the UK, and of course a lot of local Aussies both retired and non-retired. This was easy to see and confirmed by some of the straw polls the entertainers did occasionally in the theater. In general Celebrity attracts much older, mostly retired passengers on longer destination-type cruises because we have the time, and of course no kids in school. You will find a greater mix of ages, and kids, on 7-day Caribbean cruises or on most cruises during the summer season in Europe or Alaska.