Live from Solstice 10/1/23 Transpacific

[tigervixxxen]

On 10/13/2023 at 1:57 PM, Barwick Cruiser said:

Just a suggestion however since they make the turkey club to order ask the staff when you’re ordering for some mozzarella to be added to your sandwich. They’re very accommodating and it’ll save you taking a salad apart for ingredients. 

I’d rather just do it myself than play modification roulette which has been about a 50% success rate on this cruise. The “salad” is literally 2 pieces of moz and 2 slices of tomato. 
 

We are slowly sail into Auckland for the last part of our adventure. Dinner last two night in MDR has been modified menus. No idea if it’s Celebrity getting the message on the MDR issues or just trying to make things work on a long sailing with limited options. If the Moroccan spiced tuna gets to live on that is a fantastic dish and best thing I’ve had in the MDR. I resisted asking for another helping, Last night we had the jerk chicken which was an enormous portion and tasty. The sides are still pretty sad and the appetizers non existent but I’ve appreciated some different protein options. 
 

Our excursion today will take us to the Kelly Tarltons aquarium and Sky Tower. We will have dinner off the ship as all aboard is not until 9pm

[kiwichick62]

Welcome to New Zealand!  Enjoy your time here 😀  hopefully the ship will take some of our lovely produce and meat onboard for the MDR.  Will be interested to hear where you go for dinner in Auckland.

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 10/9/2023 at 11:01 PM, tigervixxxen said:

The double cheeseburger appeared in the app and DH has vowed to give it a go if it’s offered.

@fstuff1

 

If anyone on board could order the double cheeseburger and post a pic and how it tastes, it would be appreciated as I am curious if it's more gourmet than the mast grill/buffet burgers.  Otherwise, great detailed review!

[fstuff1]

8 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

@fstuff1

 

If anyone on board could order the double cheeseburger and post a pic and how it tastes, it would be appreciated as I am curious if it's more gourmet than the mast grill/buffet burgers.  Otherwise, great detailed review!

i dont eat at the mdr except on lobster night.
is the double cheeseburger at the mdr an upcharge???

You can build your own double cheeseburger (with the toppings like onions, bacon, etc) at the mast grill for free.

 

and with toppings/sauce, i cant taste the difference between a big mac and a ground sirlion burger i cook myself 😮

Edited October 15, 2023 by fstuff1

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

i dont eat at the mdr except on lobster night.
is the double cheeseburger at the mdr an upcharge???

You can build your own double cheeseburger (with the toppings like onions, bacon, etc) at the mast grill for free.

 

and with toppings/sauce, i cant taste the difference between a big mac and a ground sirlion burger i cook myself 😮

 

Too bad they don't offer takeout! lol

[rowval]

On 9/29/2023 at 9:20 AM, wrk2cruise said:

Did Auckland to Sydney the first year Celebrity did it on Mercury.  Spent a week in NZ on the South island prior to the cruise.  Loved NZ.

 

In January we are doing our first Windstar cruise on one of their motor yachts  from Auckland to Tahiti via Fiji 15 days.  We are flying to Auckland about a week before and going to spend 3 days in the Bay of Islands area which we didn't get to last time.

 

We are from the east coast so it's taken us this long to agree to the long flight again.  This time we are going to overnight in LA each direction.  With the prices could only go for premium economy and even so ouch!   Business would have been 1.5x the cruise price.

We have bee. To Bay of islands 2x,we love it. Great dolphin excursion right from the dock, very quaint area

[rowval]

On 10/1/2023 at 3:33 PM, Yoshikitty said:

We did this already 3 times and are looking forward to your trip report.

Too bad that Bora Bora limits access to larger Cruiseships like Solstice, it has been always the highlight on your cruises.

We did this 10 yrs ago I wondered why they don’t stop at Bora Bora thanks

[$hip$hape]

10 hours ago, rowval said:

We did this 10 yrs ago I wondered why they don’t stop at Bora Bora thanks

From what I’ve seen, Bora Bora wants(and gets) tourists who stay in their hotels and eat in their restaurants.

There’s not much money in cruise passengers that look around, then leave.

[hcat]

Seems there is  a varity.of spiced food in MDR.. We prefer plain dishes..often spices and gravies covers up poor beef or fish.   We have also seen  recent BLU photos of food buried in sauce! We do not eat burgers on the ship..

 

We  also embellish salads in the buffet with cheese and garnish items..

 

Enjoy your port day!

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 hours ago, $hip$hape said:

From what I’ve seen, Bora Bora wants(and gets) tourists who stay in their hotels and eat in their restaurants.

There’s not much money in cruise passengers that look around, then leave.

 

Bora Bora has lots of ships visiting including NCL, unfortunately, none are X.  When it comes to cruise ship stops, it's often the local governments who collect port taxes and local businesses who want ships to visit versus lodging/hotels and locals who don't want the congestion

[Yoshikitty]

Bora Bora has limited their port to passenger numbers of 1200 max. after reopening after Covid

 

>>Ships with a capacity of more than 2,500 passengers would be restricted to only Tahiti, Raiatea and Moorea while Bora Bora will only be allowed to welcome 1,200 cruise passengers per day.<<
 

https://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/cruise-news/french-polynesia-bans-cruise-ships-tahiti-cruises

[tigervixxxen]

Sorry y’all, I think the double cheeseburger vanished. The menu went back to one we had just a couple days ago. I was curious about it too because the beef used at the mast grill really is not good. We are making due with the MDR at this point, dinner was fine. I had the steak Diane and by a stroke of genius used the horseradish from the bread dip on the steak which was a great idea. The final chic night is tomorrow which is the lobster night. 
 

Our stops in New Zealand were lovely. Perfect weather and temps in the range I love (60-70F). Auckland was just my pace, a big city with a small city feel. It was fun seeing the penguins and sea life at Kelly Tarltons and the view from the sky tower. We walked back from the tower with a stop for dinner at Monsoon Poon, it a southeast Asian fusion restaurant. We ordered a bunch of street food apps, drinks and dessert. Was very enjoyable and I’d recommend. Then walked back to the ship. I enjoyed again the night time hot tub with zero other souls on the pool deck, it’s my favorite new cruise hack. 
 

Today Bay of Island was a beautiful sea side town. Definitely overpopulated by the cruise tourists but they also were well prepared. Celebrity declined to share there was a free shuttle bus one could take from the tender dock to the town of Piahai but it was pretty obvious to find. We walked around the small town and craft market and then ate at Jimmy Jack’s Rib Shack, another great meal and I’d recommend. 
 

Overall we’d love to come back to New Zealand some day and drive ourselves to check out the South Island. It’s a very relaxed, serene country that I enjoyed very much. The US dollar noticeably goes further there too which is a plus. 
 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by tigervixxxen

[the penguins]

23 hours ago, $hip$hape said:

From what I’ve seen, Bora Bora wants(and gets) tourists who stay in their hotels and eat in their restaurants.

There’s not much money in cruise passengers that look around, then leave.

Such a shame. Our private guide took us way up into the hills to see the WW2 gun emplacements and the amazing flowers. The flowers came a close second to the ones in Mooreia.0

[Forever42]

On 10/12/2023 at 10:40 PM, fstuff1 said:

Tonight's buffet included 2 items I've never seen offered (and I've been here since last cruise to Hawaii):

Pork belly

Bread bowl

 

Unfortunately, the filling options for the bowl was all curry (Beef, fish, veggie).

The apprentice cook making this didn't mention curry. I don't like curry. 😞

 

oh.. one other item at the buffet that I didn't see last cruise was flank steak.

Saw it twice so far this cruise.

 

I see it calls out that it's bunny chow - that's why the options were only curry. Bunny chow is a South African dish that uses part of a loaf of bread hollowed out (not necessarily a bread bowl), filled with curry. So bunny chow automatically means curry. 

[debfed65]

On 10/5/2023 at 5:07 PM, tigervixxxen said:

It’s been nice, warm and humid. The second sea day when were were at about 10 degrees north we crossed through some weather and it rained briefly and was cloudy in the morning. Otherwise fairly calm seas and good weather, today very few clouds. We crossed the equator last night on sea day 3 at 10pm. The captain blew the horn about 4x and then this afternoon after lunch the Neptune Ceremony is at the pool deck. 
 

Murano was a lovely dinner last night, as expected. I had the lobster and crepes for dessert. DH had the duck. No complaints and the service was good. We got a little extra chocolate cake for our anniversary. We will check out Tuscan Grill in about a week. 
 

We had to go hand in our passports today in preparation for our arrival in French Polynesia on Saturday. I don’t love parting with it but we don’t have much choice and I’m sure it will be fine. 
 

Thanks for following along! Don’t have much to report on these sea days. We’ll be back in the MDR for lunch and dinner. We’ve had a couple coffees and teas at Al Bacio, which we enjoy in the mornings. 

 

Thank you for doing this live report!  We are on the Edge in April 2024 from Sydney-Hawaii with the same ports of call.

 

Have a question...Why do you have to hand in your passports for the arrival in French Polynesia?  And I noticed a few post later, you said you still haven't gotten them back?

 

It is our first time in this part of the world (and we are very excited), but I am curious about this passport hand in?

 

Thanks...

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 10/15/2023 at 9:09 AM, Yoshikitty said:

Bora Bora has limited their port to passenger numbers of 1200 max. after reopening after Covid

 

>>Ships with a capacity of more than 2,500 passengers would be restricted to only Tahiti, Raiatea and Moorea while Bora Bora will only be allowed to welcome 1,200 cruise passengers per day.<<
 

https://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/cruise-news/french-polynesia-bans-cruise-ships-tahiti-cruises

 

In 2024, NCL is selling four sailings that go to Bora Bora on two ships with a capacity of 2000+.  Entirely possible they are limiting capacity or were grandfathered in.  Whatever the case, if one wants to go to Bora Bora on a mass-market cruise line, it is possible on NCL and is seemingly fairly inexpensive (insides for under $100/night PP) for the non-suites relative to the number of nights which makes me wonder if they limited capacity

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by NutsAboutGolf

[fstuff1]

10 hours ago, tigervixxxen said:

Our stops in New Zealand were lovely. Perfect weather and temps in the range I love (60-70F). Auckland was just my pace, a big city with a small city feel. It was fun seeing the penguins and sea life at Kelly Tarltons and the view from the sky tower.

There were penguins near Auckland???

What tour had penguins? link? (for next time im there)

 

Did you try the bungee jump off the sky tower? How much extra was it?

[fstuff1]

6 hours ago, Forever42 said:

I see it calls out that it's bunny chow - that's why the options were only curry. Bunny chow is a South African dish that uses part of a loaf of bread hollowed out (not necessarily a bread bowl), filled with curry. So bunny chow automatically means curry. 

oh, i had no idea. 😮

thought they were being cute with the naming

Edited October 16, 2023 by fstuff1

[Forever42]

12 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

oh, i had no idea. 😮

thought they were being cute with the naming

I've been fortunate to discover it through Disney World, of all places! It has an interesting history of Indian immigrants bringing their cuisine to SA. 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_chow

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

There were penguins near Auckland???

What tour had penguins? link? (for next time im there)

 

Did you try the bungee jump off the sky tower? How much extra was it?

In Auckland only in the SeaLife Aquarium

[tigervixxxen]

7 hours ago, debfed65 said:

 

Thank you for doing this live report!  We are on the Edge in April 2024 from Sydney-Hawaii with the same ports of call.

 

Have a question...Why do you have to hand in your passports for the arrival in French Polynesia?  And I noticed a few post later, you said you still haven't gotten them back?

 

It is our first time in this part of the world (and we are very excited), but I am curious about this passport hand in?

 

Thanks...

Yes we finally got them back the second sea day after leaving FP. It was an easy process, not sure I still love giving them up and just going into a sorted bin that’s just sitting there on a table but ours were returned just fine so I guess no problem until there is one. We were without the passport for nearly a week. It’s also funny we needed a ETA for New Zealand but nobody checked anything, didn’t require a passport for disembark in NZ, nothing. Guess we’ll see how it goes to disembark in Australia. 

[tigervixxxen]

3 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

There were penguins near Auckland???

What tour had penguins? link? (for next time im there)

 

Did you try the bungee jump off the sky tower? How much extra was it?

Yes the penguins were at Kelly Tarltons. They were behind glass but they were really very close as the building is built underground. 
 

No we didn’t bungee, I think the cost was about $280 NZD

[fstuff1]

3 minutes ago, tigervixxxen said:

No we didn’t bungee, I think the cost was about $280 NZD

Wait.. the bungee was $280nz above the sky walk price???
sheesh! 😮

[the penguins]

11 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

Wait.. the bungee was $280nz above the sky walk price???
sheesh! 😮

Sky Walk 185, Jump 280, or combined 365 all NZ.

[cruisinsusin]

20 hours ago, tigervixxxen said:

. It’s also funny we needed a ETA for New Zealand but nobody checked anything, didn’t require a passport for disembark in NZ, nothing.

We had to show both the Australian and New Zealand ETAs at embarkation