NEW DESIGN CHANGES planned for Solstice 4 and 5 ships!!

[The Big Booper]

>>SNIP<<..I see that you are sailing on the Caribbean princess next month. We did the same itinerary on that ship last year. We enjoyed the cruise, and the ship.

Two issues caused by too many people were 1) We had to be at the evening show 45-60 minutes early to get a seat. This might also have been caused by anytime dining, and most people wanting to go to the early show. Saw people coming close to blows arguing over seats, and security had to be called.

2)Breakfast buffet was waaay over crowed, and nearly impossible to get a place to sit. >>SNIP<<

.:)

 

Since the issue of overcrowding has been brought up here, The CB carries 350 more people then the Solstice and rates in at 15,000 GRT less. Way more crowded then any Celebrity ship.

[emcee207]

Ditto the teak deck, hot tubs and adult only status, now that would be something great!!

The lack of a T pool is surprising considering how many people love it.

[pumpkin 11]

What about

 

Names...

 

Celebrity Aurora?

i had a thread about a month ago, and CELEBRITY AURORA and CELEBRITY MERIDIAN were ones that were chosen. i think all the names said so far sound good.

[Eightydays]

change that darn toilet paper holder!!!

Just loved the Solstice !

 

I agree!! It was the only thing that really annoyed me. I simply left the toilet paper next to the toiletries on top.

[Eightydays]

i had a thread about a month ago, and CELEBRITY AURORA and CELEBRITY MERIDIAN were ones that were chosen. i think all the names said so far sound good.

 

I always felt that the 4th ship should be called "Meridian." It fits with the rest.

[pumpkin 11]

I always felt that the 4th ship should be called "Meridian." It fits with the rest.

Yes it does.

[Hypo]

We were on Solstice last November. We did an "excursion" with the folks from the Corning Museum (glassblowers). After the demonstration, we had lunch with the glassblowers in Murano's (included in the excursion!!)

 

We spoke at length with the glassblowers and they observed that they had asked for several changes to the oven area. The winds at sea sometimes play havoc with the cooling rates of the glass, causing it to sometimes shatter. Also they had asked for more seating, possibly stadium style, and possibly to enclose/shelter the area. Any changes that expands the size of the glassblower show, would, however, impact on the size of the lawn.

 

It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes are made.

 

Hypo

[TNVolTD]

We were on Solstice earlier this year. Though the ship was certainly pretty, the consensus of our group is that the M-Class is still our favorite for now. Changes we'd like to see are:

 

1. More seating in the Ocean View Cafe. I recall seeing this mentioned in some prior threads but not here. Almost every breakfast/lunch, we (as only a group of 4) had to wait for a table to open and often saw many others looking for tables. It was a daily frustration on our sailing, though, and it would be great to have more seating capacity on future ships.

 

2. Larger balconies for the Sunset Verandas. Even if not the size of M-Class, they could/should be much larger, especially given the price premium charged over a side balcony. A partial covering for sun/soot would be nice, too. Also, for the price premium, Sunset rooms should get dual CC credits just like CC and AQ.

 

3. Another elevator/stair well. The walk from aft to the elevators was VERY long. Exercise is fine, but the walks to/from the room were too long.

 

4. Less Lawn Club, more pool/deck space. The Lawn Club and Corning show were neat - once. As others have noted, the deck area was very crowded on sea days, and the space would seem better utilized for general deck/chair area. If the aft balconies were large enough for loungers, this issue would go away for us.

 

I don't mean to sound as if we did not enjoy Solstice and am offering the above since the thread addresses suggestions for changes. We certainly enjoyed our cruise but specifically decided to go back to our beloved aft cabins on M-Class for our next cruise. Depending on price/itinerary, we might consider Solstice, etc. again, but fixing the above items would make us more excited about doing so.

[C 2 C]

I don't mean to sound as if we did not enjoy Solstice and am offering the above since the thread addresses suggestions for changes. We certainly enjoyed our cruise but specifically decided to go back to our beloved aft cabins on M-Class for our next cruise. Depending on price/itinerary, we might consider Solstice, etc. again, but fixing the above items would make us more excited about doing so.

 

In our view S-class ships are newer and larger; beautiful but not as practical as the M-class. I'm glad for all the cruisers who prefer the newness of "S" and leave the much better relative pricing on the superior accommodations and traffic patterns of Constellation and the other M class ships.

Spend some money upgrading the furniture and interiors of the older ships and I would go back to the new builds only to say "been there, done that, bought the T-shirt....

There is nothing on "S" or the new "E" that can improve life at sea viewed from an aft balcony on M-class. (other than the furnishings).

The new ships don't even provide a reading light for night time relaxing on a balcony, (I like to read and listen to the waves) and the lack of a sun shade aft also subjects various balconies with a daily coating of soot. I have not seen plans for correcting these issues, only reports that everyone is happy.

We enjoyed Solstice for three weeks, just enough to realize that newer does not necessarily imply better, just different.

[Eightydays]

We were on Solstice earlier this year. Though the ship was certainly pretty, the consensus of our group is that the M-Class is still our favorite for now. Changes we'd like to see are:

 

1. More seating in the Ocean View Cafe. I recall seeing this mentioned in some prior threads but not here. Almost every breakfast/lunch, we (as only a group of 4) had to wait for a table to open and often saw many others looking for tables. It was a daily frustration on our sailing, though, and it would be great to have more seating capacity on future ships.

 

I agree that there is a seating issue in the Ocean View Cafe, but I am not sure it's capacity. What I noticed was a lot of tables for 6 were occupied by 2 or 3 people and tables for 4 by 2 people. It would probably have been better to have lots of tables for 2 that are moveable.

 

Having said that, I really thought the Ocean View Cafe was a huge improvement -- loved the "stations" and food variety. Great space.

[Duane T]

I agree that there is a seating issue in the Ocean View Cafe, but I am not sure it's capacity. What I noticed was a lot of tables for 6 were occupied by 2 or 3 people and tables for 4 by 2 people. It would probably have been better to have lots of tables for 2 that are moveable.

 

Having said that, I really thought the Ocean View Cafe was a huge improvement -- loved the "stations" and food variety. Great space.

I agree. The Equinox buffet was very spacious, a few more tables for 2 would be welcomed. That said, we met alot of new and intersting people when we shared a table in the Buffet.

[ZiggyKeys]

Yep, I'm for making the Martini Bar larger !!!

Great place to congregate & great vibe !!!

 

But, I'm still trying to remember if the grass smelled. I spent a ton of time at the Sunset Bar & never noticed "smelly grass". Maybe I was brain dead from drinking to much. :)

 

Solstice was great !!

[NorthernLite]

I would like to see a few wheelchair accessible aft balcony cabins.

 

And suites! Add easy to use pool and hot tub lifts and maybe a cruise director that has a clue about shuttles offered ahead of time instead of assuming everything is not wheelchair accessible. The European Union has its own version of the ADA in its constitution. So, "this is not America and everything is not accessible here" no longer applies to a good deal of the cruising world.

[tprime76]

Someone earlier asked about the comparison between Golden (the actual ship, NOT the class of ships) and Solstice... Both ships do an excellent job of obscuring sight lines with curved walls or partitions, which makes the large areas of the ships seem more intimate. This is in contrast to RCCLs Voyager class and up where they try to make the ships appear large. To me, Solstice comes off as contemporary elegant where Golden is much less elegant but appears more mainstream and friendly.

 

We loved both ships and Golden Princess is the reason we decided to give Princess a go again and we loved Solstice so much that we have her booked again for next spring.

 

Going into our Solstice cruise we were really skeptical about the fact that she was MUCH larger than the M class of ships that we loved. We love Solstice in a different way now.

 

Getting back on topic, there is no way they are going to get rid of the lawn club, glass blowing or the aquaclass of rooms since they are considered trademarks of the class of ship. Although I would love to see it, I can't see them adding the T pools because they are more difficult/costly to maintain with all of the chemicals in them. Although it seems like the Martini bar should be increased in size because it was always packed, it probably would hurt the atmosphere if they did. Not sure if it was the case when anyone else was on there, but the wine bar was kind of empty so that might be open to a bit of a redesign. I agree with everyone else that it would be great to sacrifice a bit of bathroom space to get more space in the closet...

 

Not sure what will change, but it sure will be fun to watch

[Longboysfan]

T-POOL!!!!!!!! Everyone misses the T-Pool!!!! It's been posted countless times!

 

 

That's it.

 

T-Pool maybe on one side of Solarium area and the whirilpools the other.

 

Also a boccie ball court with crushed stone so you could play all the time and not kill the lawn. With the boarders like land based games. Also you can plug in your sea pass the get equipment if it strikes you to play when no one is about to give out equipment.

 

I also thing if they had something other than the hot glass show area as having it on all ships would be redundent. Get something else cutting edge for the remaining two ships.

 

Put a hot tub or two on the Solstice deck forward with wind screens. So this adult only area gets used a bit more.

[Longboysfan]

I was thinking, and I think the most likely addition will be a REAL lounge for Captain's Club members, rather than Michaels Club being reserved.

 

That is an interesting thought. If they could figure out a way to get the outside lounge and Michaels club into the mix there. Maybe by turning the specialty resturant (Murano) side ways. Then have the bar area in the recess area along with the band area.

 

So the corridor into the specialty resturant area is a bit longer but Michaels club is taking up some of the space.

 

---------------------------------------

Murano

 

---------------------------------------

open | Michaels Club

........|

........|

---------------------------------------

corridor.

 

 

I do not know how it will look posted but have the idea in my mind.

[Qmadam]

T-pool please!

[DocJohnB]

They said the same thing about the C and M class ships when they came out...

 

Yes they did, Dan.

 

Having sailed on all classes of Celebrity ships since 1993 . . . . . Zenith (yeah, yeah, I know), Century, Millennium and Solstice, my thought (and personal view) is that Solstice class is too big for me.

 

Solstice is a beautiful ship and has some great amenities, just to big. I am not as comfortable on her as on her smaller "sisters".

 

Course now, this does not mean that I wouldn't sail on her or her sisters in the future, I would, I just love =X= too much to leave because of size.

 

Now to the OP question. I would add a bank of elevators aft. I think one of the drawbacks on Solstice is/was the length of wait (at some times) for an elevator. Putting a bank of even 3/4 all the way aft would alleviate this.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I haven't sailed an S class ship yet. The lack of a T pool and handheld showerheads are an issue for me. It's my understanding from these boards that accessing the closets is a problem and that they are perhaps not large enough for a 14-day or longer cruise. So, there's not much of an incentive for me to give up sailing on M class ships.

[gospelle]

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge or has been posted before, forgive me if it has, I don't post much..........but I was just on a 2 night pre-inaugural of the Equinox and was told by a higher ranking staff member that the 4th ship will likely be called Silhouette. I guess we'll have to wait and see. That question was asked during the Q&A session with the CEO, Dan Hanrahan and he declined to answer.

 

I like Silhouette. I'll bet that if that's what they name #4, then #5 will be Cameo.

[parrothead1]

Just a few small things:

1. Bigger AFT Balcony like M Class

2. Elevator near the AFT cabins

3. T-Pool!!! :)

 

See - nothing major.....

[glanders]

1. Redesign the pool deck for more space.

2. Get rid of the grass.

3. Redesign the MDR floor plan so that tables of 2 and 4 are really 2s and 4s and not 10s that the waiter cannot squeeze between.

4. Add a 3rd stairwell/elevator bank (ha, ha)

5. Make the closet bigger/ more accessible

[Germancruiser]

My biggest wish- sorry if it was mention earlier in the thread- is that they give us back our prommenade deck. Solstice is a beautyfull ship- but the non existend prommenade Deck is a real bummer! All you see now are the live boats. I thougt it is because of the new regulation, matters safety- but when I look at the Meyer- Werft page- i see that Aida blu has the live boats where they used to be. So why not changeing that.

I hope X is watching CC closely! LOL.

Michael

[marinearchit]

My apologies for bringing up an old thread, but I wanted to reply to the Promenade issue.

SOLAS requirements were one of my initial thoughts, but the placement of lifeboats directly on the deck does not appear to be compulsory. However, it does appear to be the direction the cruise lines and their builders are taking.

For example, look at Carnival Dream, Oasis of the Seas, and Norwegian Epic. All three use the same, new lifeboat configuration of having the boats positioned alongside the promenade area, suspended beyond the ship, rather than inside the hull. The Solstice class use a variation of this, with the boats being placed on the promenade deck, eliminating the need in a case of emergency to have to first extend the boats before lowering them previous to boarding. It is possible that this results from some of the SOLAS regulations which require a certain ease of evacuation. Loading them is much quicker with this design (It also saves space and allows for less obstructed balcony views).

In the case of the AIDAblu, the AIDAdiva class is a somewhat older design compared to any of the previously mentioned ships, so that may explain the difference. The same can be said for the lifeboat configuration on Nieuw Amsterdam and Queen Elizabeth. The designs being used are older, especially the Vista-Spirit hybrid base being used. To implement a new lifeboat configuration would require a complete overhaul of the design of the promenade deck. Any new designs to be introduced from this point on may very well all use a lifeboat configuration similar to that of Solstice, Oasis, Dream, and Epic. The only new class that doesn't have as revolutionary a configuration are the new Disney ships, although I'm not sure if their davits will operate in the traditional way (it appears they will swing outward, both extending and lowering the boat at the same time).

 

Just a secondary thought: the bigger the newbuild, the more likely it will be to use a configuration similar to this. Higher capacities require quicker means of evacuation.

 

Pertaining to the original intention of this topic, I have one big change I'd like to see...

The traditional X livery! I want some dark blue bands on the hull! :D

[marinearchit]

Just thought I'd try to do a quick MS Paint rendering of how fantastic these ships would look with the traditional X livery.