Solstice news... (3 threads merged)

[Andy]

I hope they take Azamara's lead and offer some form of anytime dining. And stranger things have happened, and they might release more dates for Solstice since the window for booking is so small. Stranger things have happened.

 

Oh and we would love laundry facilities for those longer cruises.

 

Hi Flagger !

 

I wouldnt be disappointed if they offer Anytime Dining. Frankly, I expect it. The big issue to me is.... as long as they offer Anytime Dining IN ADDITION to assigned seating, all is well. If they offer it as a REPLACEMENT for assigned seating, I feel you will have a lot of unhappy campers in the Celebrity faithful, myself included.

 

The good news is, I am very confident it will be as an addition, and not as a replacement. So, I am not going to worry about it just yet. Hopefully, we will hear more about this next week. Stay Tuned !

[flagger]

I don't want them to do away with assigned dining, but I would so love the choice of anytime dining without having to eat room service, make a casual dining reservation or pay to eat at a surcharge restaurant.

[DC2OC]

I prefer assigned seating,but it would be nice to have a non-surcharge,open seating option as well.There is always that day you don't want to be rushed back to the ship for dinner....................Frank

[SusieV]

Isn't casual dining basically open seating? They can usually accommodate people even without a reservation, and as for the surcharge... it's $4. Not a big deal.

 

I would be very disappointed if traditional dining was replaced or cut back. Look at Princess, who offers both. Traditional is often waitlisted for months before the trip. I would not want to take a cruise and gamble on whether I receive my preferred dining choice.

[flagger]

It is, but you have to make reservations by 5pm. Doesn't help you if you do not know that you are going to be in port late.

[Toni's Mom]

Just heard from my TA - itinerary is 7 nights from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan, St. Kitts and St. Maarten. Ho hum.

[cruise182]

Just heard from my TA - itinerary is 7 nights from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan' date=' St. Kitts and St. Maarten. Ho hum.[/quote']

St kitts, OK

San Juan, not so much

St Maarten, ehh

:cool:

[DC2OC]

Isn't casual dining basically open seating? They can usually accommodate people even without a reservation, and as for the surcharge... it's $4. Not a big deal.

 

I would be very disappointed if traditional dining was replaced or cut back. Look at Princess, who offers both. Traditional is often waitlisted for months before the trip. I would not want to take a cruise and gamble on whether I receive my preferred dining choice.

 

I wouldn't book if traditional dining was waitlisted...............Frank

[C 2 C]

This is a whole new Celebrity experience.

 

"The journey* not the arrival matters." -- T. S. Eliot

 

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu

 

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan

(*not the Azamara Journey) ;)

 

 

[Buckeye Geo]

This is a whole new Celebrity experience.

 

"The journey* not the arrival matters." -- T. S. Eliot

 

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu

 

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan

(*not the Azamara Journey) ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well Said

[Andy]

Just heard from my TA - itinerary is 7 nights from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan' date=' St. Kitts and St. Maarten. Ho hum.[/quote']

 

Any word on Casa De Campo ? I'm hoping that port is not on the list. I am happy with St. Maarten & St. Kitts. San Juan is so-so, but I expected SJ to be a part of the itinerary.

 

As C2C said, most of the passengers for the first sailings, will likely be the Celebrity faithful, and we will be there to see the ship. To us, the itinerary is secondary at this point.

[joeinsb]

Right you are, Andy. We'll be there to see the ship--but not until after the 500-mile breakin period.

[Albert Ross]

Just heard from my TA - itinerary is 7 nights from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan' date=' St. Kitts and St. Maarten. Ho hum.[/quote']

Not every week ...... April 12 09 she does FLL -sea - san juan, st maarten, tortola, labadee - sea-FLL

[scotlanders]

Quite right Andy itinerary is second we all want to experience the ship. I love Milleniun Class ships and like lots of area's to wander around in.

 

Must say since X dry docked Connie on 04/13/07 we had to move to Carribean Princess who have both modes of dining Traditional & Anytime. It was Easter and the ship was full but we never waited for a table. However anytime brings with it a big down side. Deciding when to eat each day is great as long as you remember that with this more casual style of cruising comes more casual dress and a dining experience that whilst still nice seems a bit rushed to accomodate multi seatings.

 

Formal nights were 50/50 formal & casual and if I were cruising with Princess again there would be no formal gown or tux maybe a nice dress & jacket for hubbie.

 

I don't know about anyone else but I love dressing up for dinner it's what makes a cruise dining experience special. If anytime dining gets onto X lot's of people will move for the better food who then won't make an effort to dress at all. That will spoil it for the majority who do. You can already see a shift of people moving away from formal. There's nothing worse than sitting in the theatre next to the couple in shorts when you're dressed up. P & O used to not serve anyone drinks etc in public area's who did not meet the dress code. They were invited to one of the upper floors where dress code was relaxed.

 

Celebrity need to think carefully about what they do here. Everyone should be free to enjoy their vacation in their own way, but we cruise Celebrity because it is more elegant & dressy I hope they remember that

[fllady]

We look forward to trying the new ship, but after hearing the stories how The Journey was not ready and sailed anyway. I think I'll let them get comfortable with Solstice now, work out any "kinks" they might have at first. I can't see paying a premium and then get something less than a Celebrity cruise experience.:)

 

Chessbriar I love the new avatar of your daughter. She surely is growing so fast and is so adorable!

[WindrunnerII]

As the ship will have five main restaurants, there should be something for everyone and plenty of traditional versus open-seating options. Just as she'll be replacing Millie in the Caribbean for the winter season, she'll be off to the Med in the spring of '09 to replace the Millie on the run between Venice and Barcelona.

[tromvest]

Where did you hear that there will be five main restaurants and that it will be replacing the Summit for Med. cruises? I would like if they added an Italian restaurant, but I think that five is too much.

[Lois R]

As the ship will have five main restaurants, there should be something for everyone and plenty of traditional versus open-seating options. Just as she'll be replacing Millie in the Caribbean for the winter season, she'll be off to the Med in the spring of '09 to replace the Millie on the run between Venice and Barcelona.

 

Do you work for Celebrity?...There are going to be 5 restaurants?:eek:

[Senga]

I thought Solstice was to be delivered in October 2008! How come no sailings until December?

[denb]

If built on time, the ship will be delivered to Meyer Werft's customer (Celebrity) in October. Celebrity then does Sea Trials before making the product available to their customers (us). That takes some time, especially if they find some 'tuning' is necessary. :) Maybe some short cruises before the paying public ones too.

[Andy]

I thought Solstice was to be delivered in October 2008! How come no sailings until December?

 

Hi Senga !

 

I could be wrong about this, but I do not believe Celebrity ever said October 2008. Any mention of Solstice (that I have seen) has said "Fall 2008". I always figured Solstice would begin sailing (for passengers) towards the end of 2008. This date seems to be on target.

[flagger]

I still find it hard to believe they will open up bookings for in essence only five months of sailings.

[chessbriar]

I still find it hard to believe they will open up bookings for in essence only five months of sailings.

??????

[tom_uk]

I don't want them to do away with assigned dining, but I would so love the choice of anytime dining without having to eat room service, make a casual dining reservation or pay to eat at a surcharge restaurant.

 

For information from another line: P&O try to mix things up a bit, but there are restrictions. They have three dining modes on most (all?) of their ships: Club Dining (very similar to standard Celebrity dining); Freedom Dining (very similar to NCL's Freestyle); and Select Dining (basically, reservation-only surcharge restaurants, e.g. Murano's on Century). You state which (of Club or Freedom) you want when you make a booking, and you are in practice pretty restricted to that. (Of course, you can opt for Select dining on an individual night's basis.) My understanding is that if you originally selected Club and want to sample Freedom once you're on the cruise, you can only do so by switching the Freedom for the rest of the cruise - you can't do a night or two of Freedom & then go back to Club. Similarly, if you opted for Freedom but decide, on the cruise, that you'd prefer Club then you have to ask the Maitre'd if there are vacancies, and then hope to be assigned to a specific table for a specific sitting.

 

In general, I believe it works well and people are happy. I don't know what the typical split between Club & Freedom is. However I would imagine it would vary according to the cruise: a 7-night Iberian Coast cruise might tend more towards Freedom Dining, while a 16-night cruise to the Adriatic & back might well tend more towards Club Dining, simply because of the (probably) different passengers on the latter cruise. (Most P&O cruises are from/to Southampton and generally feature a lot of sea days, e.g that 16 night cruise to the Adriatic might well have 7 or even 8 days at sea.)

[crntrx250r]

Celebrity have Releases this about 10 Min Ago

Following several weeks of inaugural activities, Celebrity Solstice will make its maiden voyage December 14, 2008, on a seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico; Basseterre, St. Kitts; and Philipsburg, St. Maarten. The itinerary will be offered on Sundays through April 5, 2009, with an alternating itinerary calling on San Juan, Puerto Rico; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Tortola, B.V.I.; and Labadee, Haiti, through April 12, 2009. Fares for veranda staterooms begin at $1,099 per person, based on double occupancy :)