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Ruby Princess and
Celebrity Solstice Inaugurals
I try to heed this advice from Walt Whitman at every opportunity. Recently opportunity presented itself twice in a two-week period. First, I was invited to attend a two-night inaugural cruise and naming ceremony for the new Ruby Princess – the 10th in Princess Cruises’ series of Grand class ships.(We were warned that this would be the last new Princess ship for “a while.”) The layouts of these ships are virtually identical, which makes it easy to find your way around if you’re a veteran Princess cruiser. The naming ceremony was held at 5 o’clock in the afternoon and was quite exciting. The area around the main pool was decorated with ruby red drapery and thousands of red roses. (I would like to have been the florist who was awarded that contract!) The ladies in attendance were all asked to wear ruby red formalwear, but disappointingly only about 50% did so. Each cruise ship has a godmother, but the Ruby Princess had godparents. They were Trista and Ryan Sutter of “The Bachelorette” fame. The cruise line incorporated a wedding into the festivities – bride and groom were selected by means of a contest featured in USA TODAY. Gavin McLeod (Captain Steubing of “The Love Boat) gave the bride away and made an appearance the following day in a Q&A session about his life and career. What a lovely gentleman he is! Preceding the Q&A session was an interesting culinary demonstration for which they had constructed a complete kitchen on stage. The executive chef (with numerous assistants) prepared a three-course meal in a matter of minutes. The ship was lovely, as are all of its sister Grand class ships. One stateroom feature which I particularly like is the closet – both in placement and spaciousness. The closets are open spaces adjacent to the bathrooms. They feature copious shelf space, a large number of hangers, and ample floor space for shoes, small luggage, etc. The Ruby Princess features one dining room with traditional assigned seating, two dining rooms with “Anytime Dining”, and two specialty dining rooms which command surcharges of up to $25.00 per person. They are now serving “pub fare” (fish and chips, bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, etc.) for lunch in the Wheelhouse Bar. Unfortunately, the food and food service did not reach the level of that on the Star Princess on which I sailed last spring. I’m sure they’re working on correcting that, however. The showroom entertainment was below par for Princess. We were not exposed to any of their staff singers and dancers, but rather to a quartet doing a tribute to ABBA and a vocalist who did a tribute to MoTown (a bit hip-hoppy for my taste.)
Three days after I returned from that event I went to a 2-night inaugural cruise on the Celebrity Solstice (122000 tons and 2850 passengers.) Celebrity Cruise Lines pulled out all the stops in the design of this, the first in a series of 5 Solstice-class ships. The Equinox and the Eclipse will be launched within the next couple of years, followed by two similar ships which are still unnamed. The design of this ship is amazing, even dazzling. The Grand Eperany (main) dining room is the prettiest I have ever seen on a cruise ship. On this ship, too, are 3 specialty restaurants with surcharges. Both the food and the food service on the Solstice were impeccable! I generally don’t like buffets, but this one was not your typical cafeteria line with trays. It was arranged in “stations” with pretty, decorated pottery ware for service. Very inviting! Celebrity Cruises’ practice is to have white-gloved staff members (usually cabin attendants and waiters) greet you with a glass of champagne and escort you to your stateroom. A truly warm welcome! Celebrity is very spa-oriented, going so far as having special Aqua-class staterooms adjacent to the spa and a separate restaurant, Blu, for occupants of these staterooms as well as suite residents. Cruise ships offer non-stop activities, especially on sea days. Sometimes it is necessary to “draw straws” in order to decide which ones to attend. One of the most interesting I’ve ever attended was on the Celebrity Solstice. It was a wine-tasting co-sponsored by Riedel, the Wine Glass Company. It centered, not on the different varieties of wine, but on the importance of choosing the correct size and shape of glass to enhance the enjoyment of the various wines. I was not previously aware of this, so sometimes these activities can even be educational. Riedel glassware is not sold on the ship. An innovation on Celebrity Solstice is the Lawn Club – half an acre of live growing grass. It is used for croquet, a putting green, and lawn bowling. In the area adjacent to the Lawn Club is an area devoted to glass-blowing in cooperation with the Corning Glass Museum. These demonstrations are offered 4 to 5 times each day. Corning glassware is not sold on the ship, either. Even though glassware is not sold, there are numerous upscale shops on the ship, so there’s no shortage of merchandise. One of the most interesting elements on the Celebrity Solstice is the elevators. Each bank of elevators is highlighted by a canopy of blue light. Then when a particular elevator approaches, the canopy changes to pink above this elevator – no guessing about which elevator is available! Entertainment in the theater both nights was performed by staff singers, musicians, and acrobats. The first night was a “Hooray for Hollywood” type show, and the second night was a “Cirque” type show which is painful for me to watch. The performers of the two types of entertainment were cross- trained, though, which is pretty amazing. In this report I am by no means comparing the 2 cruise ships or the 2 cruise lines. Both are superior in every respect, though I feel that Celebrity is a bit more forward-thinking. Well, Walt, I have sought and I have found,
and I shall continue to do so as long as they build new cruise ships.
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