This Celebrity Cruise Lines review takes a look at the Solstice Class Ships. This is an honest, in-depth look at many aspects of the ships that are often overlooked in other cruise reviews that just focus on the most popular areas.
Many reviews give a high level glossy review of the pools, food and entertainment. We're going a bit more in-depth on the passenger experience.
Topics include:
Cruise Vibe
Cabins & Room Stewards
Pools and Outdoor spaces
The Lawn Club Cabanas (worth it or not?)
Glass Blowing (ON the ship!)
Food and Drink (including which specialty meals are worth the cost)
How to get 30% off Specialty Meals
Where to get the best cocktails at sea
What we really think of the original shows (it's not good)
Full Transcript, apologies for typos.
Walter 0:00
Hey folks, welcome back to Where's Walter? I'm Walter.
Rebecca 0:02
And I'm Rebecca.
Walter 0:03
And today we're looking at Celebrity Cruiseline.
Walter 0:15
We've now sailed on Celebrity four times now. Right?
Rebecca 0:18
Yes.
Walter 0:18
Four times. So, we've only gone on the Solstice Class. And one of the cool thing about them is they have real grass up on the top decks, it's kind of cool. So we've sailed on Silhouette, the Reflection and the Equinox twice. And all essentially the same ship very similar, a few subtle differences. And that we thought so let's start with the vibe. Sailing on Celebrity, I call it, it's kind of like a European style of cruising, a little bit and I call it the white glove treatment without that stuffy attitude. You know, they they treat you really, really well. They really want you to have a good time, cater to almost every whim. It's very relaxed. Very relaxed ship, there's not like a lot of activities going on. In fact, one of the things to know, right off the bat is you know, they don't have all of that thrill stuff. It's a pretty quiet laid back ship. I think it's kind of like a cross between, you know, the classic nautical ship and maybe more like a modern resort. There's like touches of both in there. what what do you think Rebecca?
Rebecca 1:23
They are redoing all of those ships in that class. Some have already been redone. Some are yet to be redone. And it's definitely going to get even more of that resort vibe.
Walter 1:35
Yeah, yeah, Celebrity is Revolutionizing I think they're calling it, their entire line. And one of the things you notice immediately is the ships go from white to blue. You know, if you look at the new Edge class ships, I mean, they really are a floating resort. Absolutely gorgeous with all the touches. So expect more of that moving forward. I would say the age, certainly it's an adult ship.
Rebecca 1:57
Yes.
Walter 1:58
Right. There are kids on the ship. There are actually plenty.
Walter 2:00
Every so often.
Walter 2:01
Yeah, yeah. Especially during the holidays, you'll see more kids.
Rebecca 2:05
Well, and sometimes they, they run a kid sail free...
Walter 2:09
Yeah.
Rebecca 2:09
...sale.
Walter 2:10
They apparently have a pretty good program. We don't have kids. So we don't know. But they apparently have a pretty good program for kids. But you're not going to see tons of kids running around like you would see on a Disney or Royal or Norwegian for sure. Mainly because they just don't have all of those, they don't have waterslides, they don't have all that outdoor stuff and they don't have all kinds of games. So it definitely skews more adult. And again, like I said, there's there's no major thrill attraction. So it's, if you're looking for you know, if you're looking for waterslides, flow riders and all that stuff, this is not the ship for you. This is a good ship if you just want to be pampered. You want to relax, get some really nice pools, and they got really good food. Now for us, Celebrity actually has one of the nicer cabin layouts of any of the ships that we've been on. Plenty of room first of all, lots of storage. First of all your luggage will fit under the bed, correct?
Rebecca 3:01
Yes.
Walter 3:02
So they're raised up plenty, so you can put your luggage under the bed, lots of storage in the cabinets and you got the wardrobe and the drawers around so you're, you shouldn't have a problem. You know storing your stuff, even on a 14 day cruise or even longer. I mean you should have plenty room. Now the bathroom, especially for just a single bathroom which is, means that the toilet shower, everything is in in the same room. Really well done layout in there, right?
Rebecca 3:27
Yeah, and definitely some of the best bathroom storage of any cabins we've stayed in.
Walter 3:27
Yeah. And what's really nice is, especially I hope I have a picture of this, but along the left side of the mirror they have like all these little compartments and drawers and things that, that, yeah, shelves that hold a lot of stuff. It's really well done maximum use of space. So bravo to whoever designed those bathrooms on the Solstice Class of the Celebrity, beautifully done. They do have glass doors, and they have the split shower controls, which is really nice. So you have one control for hot, cold. You have another control just to turn on. So that's really nice. So once you get the temperature to what you like it, you can just leave that dial right there. And all you got to do is just turn the water on and off, wonderful. The balconies are nice size, at least on the Solstice Class. Don't know about the Edge class, but on the Solstice Class, they have a nice depth. So you don't feel like you just stepping right into the railing. You can actually put your feet out and whatnot. Wouldn't you say Rebecca?
Rebecca 4:26
Yeah, and that means obviously some are bigger than others, but, but they're, you know, a decent size for a standard balcony stateroom.
Walter 4:35
Yeah, and we've only done balcony staterooms. We've not done interior or ocean view or any of that. So we can only speak on the balcony rooms, but they're very nice. Part of the Revolution, they got new carpets. They got some new bedding and whatnot. We did actually sail Equinox before and after the Revolution and the big change really was they put new carpet in. They changed the bedding and they may have changed the seating and there really weren't all that many changes to the cabin. They were just really superficial. The beds are actually comfortable for at least for us, you know that that's subject to you but for us the beds were very comfortable but as Rebecca has noted, the pillows?
Rebecca 5:10
Not my favorite but that's pretty standard with every cruise line, hotels they have very soft squishy pillows.
Walter 5:20
Very soft like you know, you lay down you're ...
Rebecca 5:22
Which if you sleep on your side, which both of us do...
Walter 5:25
Yeah.
Rebecca 5:26
I don't find them comfortable.
Walter 5:28
Yeah, basically your head is just laying flat on the bed. You know, it's like you put two or three pillows together but that's literally been every cruise ship we've ever been on. The cleanliness of the cabin and the room steward in particular just just, you know, spotless, if you will. I mean excellent attention by the room steward, the cabin, you know, spotless when you walk in, they keep it spotless, all day long. Even, even the, the the hallways outside, extremely clean. Anything else you want to add about the room steward?
Rebecca 5:59
We've all been had ones that have been very good about learning our names like immediately.
Walter 6:05
Yeah, I think Celebrity might be the best, other than Disney, but Celebrity, I mean literally knows our name. They learn your likes and and just really keep the place clean. Now for the pools and outdoor area let's start with that lawn that I talked about. I mean it really is, it's Bermuda grass up on the lawn club deck, I don't know I'll put the number up here. I'm going to say 15 I'm gonna guess it's 15 but I don't know, whatever that graphic says that's the deck, but it is real Bermuda grass and it's kind of neat, you know, to be on a cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean, and you're walking around on real grass, it's not astroturf. And it's really nice. So they they allow you to lay out on it. They play lawn game like bocci, but I will say they use, if you've played bocci, with the real thing, they use these plastic balls that are full of water, it's really hard to play. And if you do one of the ones where it's the crew against the passengers, the crew almost always wins because they're used to playing with that. But it is a very neat experience up there.
Rebecca 7:01
And our, our last Equinix cruise they've had added a movie screen. So some nights you can go see movies outside
Walter 7:09
One of the big thing that they added, Equinox added the cabanas on the lawn club and they look kind of like bird cages. I'm showing you some pictures from our cruise. We've done cabanas on other ships. So the whole point of a cabana is you're getting kind of like an exclusive experience, right? You're paying for the cabana for the day, you get some perks, like usually some waters, some fruits and things like that. But the big thing is you kind of get like this private area, where it's just yours, nobody can come in unless you're part of the cabana payment or whatever you want to be, it's that area. That wasn't the case on the Equinox. I mean, Rebecca what, what are your feelings about the cabanas versus like what you're expecting?
Rebecca 7:46
Well first off, not even remotely close to a pool.
Walter 7:50
Hmm, no, no, you have to go down at least, actually two decks. You got to go down two decks to get to the pool.
Rebecca 7:55
Yeah, and and everybody can just walk by and wander by and I mean, I guess they kind of have it set up for shade, sorta, but..
Walter 8:04
Sorta.
Rebecca 8:05
To me, I don't see it being worthwhile.
Walter 8:08
We don't really see the value of because you are literally part of the lawn club. So they're, so on the Equinox, there's glassblowing going on on one side. They might be showing some movies on the screen. People could be laying out in the grass right in front of you, and then people are walking by behind you. Because the walkways are right behind you going back to the aft of the ship where the bar is back there. So what you're paying for is literally the birdcage. And that's it, and for us, it's not really a cabana experience worth paying for. If you want that nice, casual, relaxed feel without all this traffic going by, well then go into the solarium pool. Which that leads us right into that pool. Isn't it a gorgeous pool. One of our favorites. Yeah, definitely one of our favorite indoor pools, just because a couple of things, you know, one, it is beautiful in there, but two, very quiet music piped all day. I mean literally very quiet, strange music. Sometimes I'm not quite sure what it is. But it's very very quiet in there. They don't play any of the announcements in there unless it's like an emergency announcement or you know, critical thing. But all the announcements that you would hear out by the main pool you don't hear them in the solarium.
Rebecca 9:23
No bands playing.
Walter 9:24
No band playing, it's adult only. I think 16 and over, yeah 16 and over. If you want that, it's almost like getting the cabana experience without paying for the cabana because there's even a small spot over on the side of, small cafe over on the side where you can enjoy some light snacks and things like that. And the other thing about it's, it's a full sized pool, right Rebecca? like you can swim laps.
Rebecca 9:47
A cruise ship full size pool, yes.
Walter 9:50
Yeah. So you can actually swim laps and the thing is deep enough, I want to say it's like around four and a half feet.
Rebecca 9:56
Four to five I think.
Walter 9:57
Yeah, so you can actually swim laps in it. It has a really fun water feature, waterfall feature on the one side, especially at night, looks gorgeous at night when it's all lit up. So the main pools are exactly what you would expect on a cruise ship. They've got bands out there, they've got activities, they got dancing going, they got all kinds of stuff going on out there.
Rebecca 10:14
DJs.
Walter 10:15
DJ, and it's beautiful. I mean, it really does look like a resort when you're in there. The way the pools are set up with the big sails and things on both sides. At night, they're absolutely stunning with the way the lights are. And the pools are open to what like 10 o'clock at night, right?
Rebecca 10:27
I believe so, which is later than most cruises.
Walter 10:30
Yeah, so if you'd like to swim at night, boy, I'll tell you Celebrity one of the only that we sail on anymore that actually still has their pools open late, I believe as late as 10 o'clock and you'll see it's absolutely gorgeous out there at night. So one of the things that I hope that they're able to continue, it's one of my favorite things on the Celebrity ships is the pool volleyball officers versus the guests. If you're able to partake they actually do a whole tournament with with the guests forming teams. They have to do a whole tournament and then the winner of the guest tournament finally gets to play the officers, and it's a lot of fun, especially if the captain partakes. I've never seen the captain play, but I've seen the captain come down and be like a cheerleader. So that's a lot of fun when the captain comes down. And one other thing about the pools and outdoors on Celebrity, they have the most shade of any ships that we've seen up on the top deck. Now the retreat Sun Deck, that's pretty much full on sun. But they do have these interesting, like above the solarium pools outside they have these big sails along the outside, that creates shade, and then they have more shade, I think down by the main pool, so it's still you know, pretty much 80% sun, when you're out on the pool deck, but Celebrity does do a good job of giving you the option if you want to get in the shade, there does seem to be more shade outside than many other cruise ships. Now the food and drink has been very good on Celebrity, very consistent across the ships. I'll start with that solarium spa cafe I mentioned before, this is great. If you're like us, you probably tend to have a rather large dinner. And then the next morning you're like, yeah, I should have breakfast but I feel kind of full. So if you don't want to hit that buffet, the solarium spa cafe has a really nice light breakfast. They have little bars, they have little things, and it's included. You can order something that costs more but they have a lot of these light snacks and light breakfast items that are out there. They have coffee, they have tea, they have juice. So if you're just looking for a light breakfast, the solarium spa cafe is really really good for light breakfast. Now the coffee bar and gelataria is usually really really good. But for some reason on our last Equinox cruise, it had kind of declined a bit, the the service wasn't as good at the coffee bar and the coffee honestly wasn't as good as it had been on our three previous sails. I don't know if Celebrity changed their coffee brand, or what, but it was very noticeable to me because I love my coffee, and the gelato bar was awful. We didn't even get any gelato on our last, our last cruise just because it looked melted, it didn't look good. The sandwiches were sad, it was just not good. Normally it's quite good. Now we don't know what the changes are going to be in the buffet, one thing I will say is Celebrity is well set up to have crew serve from the buffet, because every station actually has space so we're not really sure how the service is going to be moving forward. But we can say that the food in the buffet has been very good. They have hand tossed pizza, they have a pasta station where they make up the pasta for you. Breads are good salad bar was always very, very good. They have what? Indian dishes, Asian dishes.
Rebecca 13:36
Yeah, yeah, well, they I think they're kind of all in the same Indian, Asian, they have a Mexican section, they have a fresh carved meat of some sort, usually.
Walter 13:45
In the morning, they have British breakfast, they always have Indian food, always have Indian food and it's always very, very good.
Rebecca 13:52
And it's nicely set up so that each of these are kind of a different area. So you don't have to go through a big long line to get to what you want, you can just go to the section that you want.
Walter 14:03
And again, we don't know what the service exactly how that's going to be laid out, but the buffet area is good. The one weakness however, is the desserts. We have not had a dessert that we have liked in the buffet on any of the three.
Rebecca 14:18
We've had a couple things we've liked, but that may just have been because everything else was so terrible by comparison.
Walter 14:25
It looks great. They look gorgeous, beautiful, beautiful little cakes and pastries and this, that and the other and then you eat them and it's like,
Rebecca 14:31
And the pie crust is consistently soggy.
Walter 14:35
Yeah, you don't want soggy pie crust. I'm sorry Celebrity.
Rebecca 14:38
I mean that part that's above the pie, but the bottoms got soggy bottoms.
Walter 14:43
Yeah, soggy bottoms, not good Celebrity, you got to work on your soggy bottoms. The main dining room, I mean, it's consistently good. Is it the best, is it amazing? Not amazing, but it's consistently good. You know you get what you expect. And as with any cruise line, if you're not completely satisfied with what you get, they'll bring you something else. Just order something else. Or if you want another entree, they'll bring you something else. So nothing spectacular. Now on our last cruise, we were on Aqua class, which gave us access to the Blu restaurant. And it was actually really really good.
Rebecca 15:19
Yeah.
Walter 15:19
We had pretty much every meal in there except I think one where we went...
Rebecca 15:23
Maybe two. First night and then the Indian special meal which we'll get to.
Walter 15:29
Yeah, definitely if you're in the Aqua class go to Blu, you, you should definitely enjoy that. Now Murano is the French restaurant. It's actually quite good. It's somewhat of a limited menu, we have done that twice. So our very first cruise on Silhouette, we hit the Murano, really enjoyed it. And then on one of our other follow up cruises, we did it, didn't enjoy it quite as much because it was just the same thing. So for me, it was like, Well, yeah, it's good, but I don't remember what the fees are and they change all the time anyway. But I didn't feel that it was worth doing it again because it's just that same meal.
Rebecca 16:04
They did have a good cheese platter thing going around.
Walter 16:08
Cheese platter and the lobster dish is very good. I mean that's what I got the first time. And I don't remember what I did the second time, so it is a nice dining experience. And if you're celebrating, you know an anniversary, birthday or something like that, it is a nice meal you get a little more dressed up, it is French service. It definitely, Murano worth doing once. It's up to you whether you want to keep going back to it. Our favorite restaurant on board no longer exists. It was called Qsine. It was the original Qsine. It was all tappas, don't even have to talk about it because it doesn't exist anymore. It is now Le Petite Chef at Qsine, which we won't do. We don't see the value in it. It's just a cartoon show with a set meal and it's a very limited menu, and we don't see the value. And we've heard such mixed reviews. Some people say the food is worth it. Other people say well, yeah, the show was better than the food. So for us, we don't need the gimmick of the animated food, we would rather pay for a really good dining experience versus that. So for us, Le Petite Chef, we can't give you any advice on that because we're not going to do that. And we were actually on one of the first sailings with Sushi on Five when it was first introduced, and we enjoy it. We've actually seen the evolution of it. Cause each time we go on, they've kind of expanded the menu a little bit, a few more things. So for us Sushi on Five is definitely worth the upcharge. Especially if they're open for lunch. That's a great time to go.
Rebecca 16:52
And we did, last cruise, we did it on our first night, because they were offering 30% off. So that was a great deal.
Walter 17:36
And that's one of the cool things, every single time we've sailed on Celebrity., they've offered 30% off on the first night of specialty meal because everybody will go to the main dining room usually on the first night. So a lot of times those specialty restaurants are somewhat empty. But when you get on board, usually it's outside the buffet. They've got some sort of a station setup where they're taking reservations for dining and they will tell you hey, we got 30% off tonight, so if you want to go to Murano, you want to go to Tuscan Grill, you want to go to Sushi on Five, that first night, great night to do it. Tuscan Grill. Look I'm Italian, it's a decent Italian meal. It's not the best Italian meal at sea. I'll tell you, Princess actually has a better one. But it's good. I say if you want to go to Tuscan Grill, go when they're offering it at lunch, so you can sample it without paying that dinner price and see what you think.
Rebecca 18:26
A slightly more limited menu but,
Walter 18:28
Yeah.
Rebecca 18:28
Certainly a better deal price wise for us.
Walter 18:32
That's pretty much true of any restaurant that you go on, on the ship that if they have a lunch meal, it will be a more limited menu, but it certainly gives you a sense of, do I want to pay for this for dinner. So if there's any restaurant that you're on the fence about on any cruise ship, do I want to pay for dinner, see if they're going to offer lunch at some point on the cruise and then you can sample it at lunch. And so for me Tuscan Grill is a good lunch. I don't know that I would pay for dinner there again. We had a decent experience at the Lawn Club Grill. Now, we went there when they first really opened up and the vegetarian was limited, right, Rebecca?
Rebecca 19:03
Yeah, I mean, they'll do grilled, grilled vegetables but everybody does grilled vegetables. Well, yeah, but it was, the, really good dessert though. I will say they had a good dessert.
Walter 19:12
Yeah, they had good desserts. So it, you know, it was an experience, you know, at the time it was limited for vegetarians. I would say you know, it might be worth doing once. See what you think. But for us, we've done it. We don't really see the need to go back to do that one again. On our last Equinox cruise, they started adding specialty dinners. So one night Sushi on Five was serving a special Indian dinner. And when Rebecca and I saw that we're like, oh my gosh, we've got to get it because the Indian food is always so good up in the buffet.
Rebecca 19:41
From what I understand that, that only happens on longer sailings.
Walter 19:45
Yeah.
Rebecca 19:45
When they're doing seven datesys, seven night sailings, that they don't do those.
Rebecca 19:50
Yes, 10 or 11.
Walter 19:50
Yeah, they don't generally do it. So we were on a 10 night or an 11 night.
Walter 19:55
So if you're on a longer sail and Hey, Celebrity that does work on those longer ones, why not maybe think about on those seven nights, maybe one night do something. If you see those specialty meals pop up, and you might even see it before the sailing, if they've already figured it out. But if you see some of those specialty meals, especially if it's an Indian dinner and you like Indian food, Indian food on Celebrity is really, really good. Now let's talk about the cocktails because I do love cocktails. And the Celebrity Solstice Class, in my opinion, has the best bar at sea, at least of all the ships that we've sailed on, the World Class Bar, they make craft cocktails. There's no show at all. It's not like the martini bar, it's just a couple of bartenders back there making wonderful craft cocktails that run generally like say $10 to $14. I think that's kind of the range.
Rebecca 20:43
I would say probably more 12 to 14.
Walter 20:45
Yeah, 12 to 14, I think there might be a couple drinks higher, but they take like five minutes to make your drink. It's not like they rush through it. And they, I think they only make 10 or 12 cocktails and that's it, whatever's on their menu that that's what they make.
Rebecca 20:58
They won't make, if you want a beer, they're not going to have a beer. If you want, you know, a special Daiquiri, they're not going to have that. They have what's on the menu.
Walter 21:09
What's on the menu. And it's kind of, it's kind of interesting because we didn't even see it on our first cruise. And so on the second cruise, we discovered it. And there's like this little group of people that find it. And then you all kind of become bar buddies of the World Class Bar, and you start running into each other each night. Because once you find this bar, you're like, Oh my god, how did I not know about this bar? Because they have the best drinks at sea. Hands down. Now the martini bar is an awesome show. I mean, it is amazing to see them, you know, put all the cups together and then they pour all the martinis out. But for our money. The drinks are okay. They're not great.
Rebecca 21:14
We've only tried it once.
Walter 21:49
Yeah.
Rebecca 21:49
And I had a Cosmo and I hated it.
Walter 21:53
Yeah. And my Martini was really, really sweet. And I'm like, you know, I want a martini.
Rebecca 21:59
Perhaps it was just bad ordering.
Walter 22:01
It could have been. But you know, it's always so crowded in there. And it seems like that bar is more about the show than it is about the drinks themselves. And I've gotten to the point now where I want to good cocktail, I want to really, when I pay for a drink, I don't want to just go, Okay. I want it to be good. So I will pay 12, 14 $15 to get a really, really good cocktail. So, the martini bar, definitely a lot of fun. And you should go in there and watch the show. Try them for yourself, you may find, if you like sweeter drinks, you're going to find some in there that you really like. Now the pool bars on Celebrity have this really annoying habit, especially if you buy a frozen drink, where they'll make that whole frozen drink and then they top it off with like an inch of rum or an inch of whatever that alcohol is for the drink instead of blending it in. And so to me that kind of ruins the drink and then you're trying to like mix it in. It's like I want the rum in the drink. I don't want to just sitting on the very, very top, and I thought it was maybe just one ship that did it, no, every ship has done it, every pool bar has done it.
Walter 22:01
So that's the only knock.
Rebecca 22:05
And the bar at the back of the ship, the sunset bar, that's...
Walter 22:28
If you order from any bar outside and you order a frozen drink, they will pretty much put an inch of whatever the alcohol is up on the top rather than blending it in. So that's kind of annoying. In terms of the bars up on the decks, the best bar that I found is one in the aft, usually it's called the sunset bar. But that one usually has the better bartenders, the ones at the pool, you know, they got to turn them out quick. So they're just, they're just cranking out these drinks. And they're very, very inconsistent in my opinion. The guys in the aft bar again, usually sunset bar, they're usually a little bit better. So if you're looking for drinks up on the deck, and if you go to the aft, there's really nice seating areas and shade around the lawn club grill, so you can get your cocktail and you can just sit and watch the ocean go by. So if you're looking for an outdoor bar, just to sit and relax during the day, go to the very back of the ship. And I believe again, it's called the sunset bar. Absolutely beautiful. So overall, if you're, if you'd like food and you really like your cocktails, you should enjoy Celebrity. So, for activities and entertainment. Well, we started off by telling you the ship is pretty quiet you know, other than those pool games going on during the day, it's a pretty quiet relaxed vibe. At night, it does get a little more exciting. But during the day, if you're looking for a quiet spot, you know, to read, to play cards or play game, and you know, the library and the game room, absolutely beautiful. They can get somewhat noisy because you hear all the noise coming up from the atrium. So some quiet spots, actually the martini bar during the day, it's lots of natural light. With the beautiful seating area. The Sky Observation Lounge up in the front of the ship. It's a really nice quiet spot during the day. They do play trivia in there from time to time, which is a lot of fun. And I just mentioned you know, the sunset bar area in the back of the ship. Really nice chairs up on the lawn area where you can just sit and relax. Now the library and the game rooms will actually get really noisy at night. And that's because the grand foyer is part of this beautiful elevator area that's open all the way to the top of the ship. And every night they have bands playing in the grand foyer, and you, literally the sound will travel all the way up to deck, whatever the top deck of the ship is. So if you want to try to play games at night, or you just want to sit in the library at night, just know you're going to hear the band almost as if they're right there in the room with you. So it does get noisy. It's beautiful the way they've done it, but just understand that it could be a little bit noisy at night. So if you're looking for that quiet place to read or that plot, quiet place to play a game at night, you might have to go elsewhere than the library and the game room. On our last cruise, they had added the movie screen on the Equinox and so we went up there one night to watch a couple movies. It's a decent screen. The sound wasn't that great though, and you're right underneath the big stacks. So you're getting this, this low level rumbling the whole time you're trying to watch a movie so it's a decent experience.
Rebecca 25:57
And they had these weird floor chair sort of things that didn't work and they weren't comfortable so it was hard to get comfortably seated for a whole movie.
Walter 26:07
It was a good idea, the execution kind of fell flat, not nearly as good as say like on Princess with their movies under the stars. Now Equinox is one of the ships that actually had glassblowing on it. And the first time we sailed on her, it was just a show. It was a Corning Museum glass show. Usually with three or four people putting on a show of blowing glass and it was actually really really interesting to watch how they did it. On our latest cruise they converted now Hollywood Hot Glass now does a class, a one on, basically a one on one class. Think about 30 minutes right?
Rebecca 26:38
Something like that.
Walter 26:39
Yeah.
Rebecca 26:40
20, 30 minutes.
Walter 26:41
Yeah, so 20, 30 minutes. So you will, for extra cost, you will make something with an actual glassblower and the work you do is minimal. It'd be mainly you blow into the pipe and you hold a couple of things. They do a lot of the work for you. But you do get to pick the colors, you get to pick what you want. Rebecca and I both made a tumbler. They came out completely differently. Which was kind of funny. I didn't...
Rebecca 27:02
We had two different glassblowers help.
Walter 27:06
Yeah.
Rebecca 27:06
Each of us.
Walter 27:07
So, and you don't do it at the same time, just one person at a time in there doing it. And that's really cool if you go with a couple so like one of you can take pictures and video and then swap off the other person, which is really neat. One of the best things about Celebrity is their casino is non smoking. Now, I know if you smoke out there, you're like, Oh, what? But it's great for those of us who don't smoke, because a lot of times on these ships that you know, the casinos are smoky. And if you want to get from one place to another place on the ship, sometimes the easiest way to do it is to go through the casino, and then you have to decide, well, am I gonna walk through all the smoke or am I gonna go around a different way?
Rebecca 27:42
Yeah, there's some cruises where we've literally gone up a deck over the casino, down the deck,
Walter 27:48
Because it's so bad. It's just so much, it smells like an ashtray when you're walking through and then your clothes smell like an ashtray when you come out on the other side. So Celebrity's are, know that Celebrity casino, if you're going to go play or if you just want to use it as a walk through, it's non smoking. Now the original shows, you know, first of all, I'm gonna say, the performers are amazing. They have great dancers, great singers, they're really, really good. It's the show itself. We have not, now we know that there are people out there on the boards, in the forums who do like the original Celebrity shows. And again, we're just talking Solstice Class shows. Those are the ones we've seen, Elysium, Max, can't remember, can't remember. The shows themselves are just, for us, just not good. They're over thought, you know, we would, look we were on a cruise ship, we just want to be entertained for 45 minutes, have a good time. Hear some good songs, see some good acts. And they seem to have taken it to where, like they want to go to that Cirque du Soleil style, or some big over dramatic show. And for us, they just don't work.
Rebecca 28:55
And we like Cirque du Soleil, but it's just, they're just weird, for us.
Walter 29:00
They're just weird. And to me, it's almost like somebody went and saw Cirque du Soleil and went, ah, I can do that. No, no, you can't. And, and I, you know, Elysium, to me is the epitome of a bad cruise show. And there's just no other way for me to describe it. If you want to know how bad it is, and if they're still doing it, well go see it for yourself and then put your comments down below. Now, the musicians and bands around the ship, they're really really good and the house band, the the orchestra for the, for the theater really, really good on every single ship we've been on. But even just around the ship, you know, at sunset bar, they'll have people playing sometimes they have a band playing out by the pool, really, really good musicians on ship. And all of this is personal taste, obviously. I don't know what you guys like. But for us, the original shows fall flat, but we do enjoy all the musicians around the ship. So if that chilled, relaxed experience of what you're looking for on board, where the crew treats you, right. You get really good food, great cocktails and some fun entertainment, beautiful pools, then Celebrity cruise line, should definitely be on your radar. Now, here's another video I think you're going to like. YouTube thinks you're going to like this one over here. If you like what we're doing, please subscribe to the channel, Rebecca and I are having a great time bringing you all of this advice. I'm making cocktails. We're making some recipes together as well. So thanks for watching. I'm Walter.
Rebecca 30:16
I'm Rebecca.
Walter 30:17
We'll see you next time.
Research Links
Celebrity Cruises: https://www.celebritycruises.com/
Celebrity Cruises on Cruise Critic: https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseto/cruiseitineraries.cfm?cl=9
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