{"id":13033,"date":"2024-12-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=13033"},"modified":"2024-12-03T17:32:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T01:32:57","slug":"the-celebrity-solstice-heads-to-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=13033","title":{"rendered":"The Celebrity Solstice Heads to Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(I believe a user error occurred and parts of this blog were previously posted for a few minutes. It’s confusing being on the other side of the planet!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days before we left for this trip, Linda got on the Celebrity<\/strong> website and saw that bids were being accepted to up-grade our ship\u2019s cabin for a suite<\/strong>.  She decided to give it a try and so she made a bid.  The indicator that shows your possibility of getting the up-grade showed \u201cslim to none and Slim just left town\u201d.  But apparently Slim came back into town as we got the up-grade.  This up-grade put us in the front of every line checking in \u2013 they treated us as if we actually had money!  Then we got to our room.  \u201cOh, my goodness!!\u201d  There is a desk by the entry, that opens to about a 12\u2019 x 20\u2019 living area with two large couches, an easy chair and TV.  There is a master bedroom with a king-sized bed and walk-in closet and a large TV.  The bathroom has two entries, one from the master bedroom and one for guest to use by the entry.  Needless to say, we love the room! <\/p>\n\n\n

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Us, pretending we are rich!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The rest of the ship is like most cruise ships, lots of bars and restaurants, a large event theater and a staff that is very helpful and friendly.  I understand they have a gym here as well, hopefully I\u2019ll be able to find that over the course of the 13 days we are on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this writing we\u2019ve only been on board for two days, so I\u2019ll keep you posted on any of the other features of the ship as we learn more ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koh Samui<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Lunch on the island of Koh Samui<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Our first port of call is Koh Samui, a Thailand island just off the coast of Bangkok.  We tendered into shore and we had a tour set up of the \u2018Highlights of Koh Samui\u2019.<\/strong>  We are met by a very nice Thai girl, with a great sense of humor, who will be our guide for the day.  Our bus takes us along the coast on the only road around the island of Koh Samui, stopping at several Buddhist Temples<\/strong> until we arrive at our luncheon destination, a very nice beachside restaurant and hotel, where we have lunch, that consisted of , , , well, I\u2019m not sure what it was, but it was good!  After lunch we are back on the bus and headed to a cocoanut plantation.  Once there, we walk out into a cocoanut tree grove and one of the workers there gives us a demonstration on how to pick, shave, split and harvest the meat as well as shows us how to make cocoanut water.  We are let off by the tender, where I am able to purchase a \u2018Thai mask\u2019<\/strong> for my back bar collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we get back to our room, our butler has placed a nice fruit basket along with some champagne on ice and beer in the refrigerator \u2013 this must be how the rich people live!  I could get used to this!<\/p>\n\n\n

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A typical two-bedroom condo in Bangkok. NOT!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bangkok<\/u><\/strong> We have an all-day tour set up and it\u2019s literally all day, starting at being picked up at 8:00 am and returning to the ship at 10:00 pm.  It is about an hour-and-a-half drive from the port into Bangkok, and we are lucky because we arrived on a Saturday and if it were a week day, the drive would have been at least three hours!!  Our first stop is at the Royal Palace<\/strong>, which is quite spacious and aesthetically beautiful, in a colorful, albeit garish, to us.  Our guide tells us about the history of the kings of this land and some interesting history.  We get back on our bus and drive through the very big, very busy and not-to-beautiful city of Bangkok.  We stop at a nice river-side restaurant for lunch, then get on a boat and visit the royal boatyard where all the past king\u2019s river craft reside on display.  We get back on the bus and visit a few Buddhist temples, and to be honest, we\u2019re not all that impressed with Bangkok . . . until. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a night dinner cruise on the river, Chao Phraya, that runs through the heart of all the fancy hotels and restaurants.  We are on an open-air boat, where we enjoy a delicious dinner, while taking in the spectacularly lit buildings along the river \u2013 music and fireworks are included.  A breath-taking evening.  We felt that this portion of the tour literally saved the day and made the long trip to and from the port into the city, worthwhile.  Although it was a long bus ride back to the ship and the driver did get lost on our way, but eventually we arrived back at the ship at 10:30 pm . . . exhausted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent all of the next day in port and on the ship as we didn\u2019t have any other Bangkok tours planned.  It felt good to relax and explore this wonderful ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next: Good Morning Vietnam!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(I believe a user error occurred and parts of this blog were previously posted for a few minutes. It’s confusing being on the other side of the planet!) The Ship A few days before we left for this trip, Linda … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[813],"tags":[4602,4601,4584,4604,4605,4585],"class_list":["post-13033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-bangkok","tag-buddhist-temples","tag-celebrity-solstice","tag-kho-samui","tag-royal-palace","tag-thailand"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Condo-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-3od","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13033"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13052,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13033\/revisions\/13052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}