First-timer on Celebrity, loved the Solstice!

Recently returned from our Alaskan cruise on the Solstice. This was our first time on Celebrity and we loved just about everything about it.

SHIP AND CABIN

Our two most recent cruises were on Norwegian Escape and Getaway. Solstice outclassed them in every respect. Better layout, better common spaces, more "WOW" factor (glass elevators at aft that go from bottom to top, etc). Cabins were great. Spacious balcony. Bathroom design was great, especially the cabinet on the left which provided plenty of storage space. The only thing I thought would have been useful would have been a retractable clothesline in the shower.

FOOD

My son has nut allergies, and the dining staff took great care of him. We would pre-order his meals in advance for the following night. The assistant waiter brought him his own bread each night as soon as we sat down. Food in the Main Dining Room was fantastic, in fact we found it so good that we didn't try any of the specialty restaurants for dinner. We did try Sushi on Five for lunch and found it to be fairly mediocre.

Buffet layout was very good. I liked the concept of having food on islands, as opposed to the very crowded long submarine style line on Norwegian. Food selection in the buffet was great, and I liked how each day would feature a different cuisine at one of the stations (Taste of France, etc). My complaints about the buffet are fairly minor, but I would suggest 1) add chocolate milk, 2) more water dispensers are needed, and 3) they need more waffle makers.

It takes 5 minutes to make four mini Belgian waffles since they only have one machine. Unless you eat early, they were always out and there was always a line waiting for them to make more. One morning a lady asked me if I was waiting for waffles, because I would have to ask the chef to make one for me. I said, huh? They are just making them as fast as they can and I can wait. She then proceeded to tell me that her son will "only" eat waffles so sorry for me, she's not trying to be selfish, but she's going to take the whole thing. Waffles were ready, the chef took one piece with tongs and placed it on her plate and then proceeded to start to give me one until the lady said she was waiting for the whole thing. Rude.

Loved the variety of regional/foreign foods that are a bit more unusual to an American palate. I tried many kinds of Indian food (delicious!), Chinese congee (rice porridge), English black pudding.

ENTERTAINMENT

Shows were fantastic. I wasn't expecting the shows to be so good, since I hadn't looked into the Celebrity shows and was used to the Broadway shows on Norwegian. The singers and dancers were fantastic. We saw four distinct shows. Loved one of the lead singers, Ta Tynisa Wilson, who apparently was a top 24 semi-finalist on one season of American Idol. Beautiful, and has a powerful voice. Also was amazed by the acrobats/aerialists, particularly the husband/wife duo Nickolaj and Katja from the Ukraine. The other nights had comedians which we also found entertaining. Noticed that there was no welcome show on the first night, which seemed unusual to me. And there was no farewell show, but that is probably more a function that we ported in Victoria until 11:59 PM on the final night of the cruise.

ACTIVITIES

My kids missed the mini golf, rock wall, waterslides and ropes courses that we had on Norwegian. But I never felt bored. I never once felt the feeling that I was "missing out" on something, usually on a cruise there is so much going on that I feel like I always miss something. This cruise, there were many times where we just sat around the atrium and talked or read a book and just relaxed. Hot glass shows were fantastic. Loved the nature talks by Brent (Brett?) on the various Alaskan animals. Loved the talks by his wife, Miss Amanda about this history and culture of the various ports. Even though I don't really buy that she's an actual historian. She bills herself as a "cultural historian" but I really feel like she's just Brent's wife and they needed to find her something to do, so she read a few books and made a few presentations regurgitating information that was written and researched by someone else.

OVERALL

Definitely enjoyed Celebrity. Never felt like the cruise was really crowded, even though there were a lot of people on board. I loved not having to worry about fighting the pool chair hogs, although this was obviously a function of this being an Alaskan cruise. Never felt like I was competing against other guests, with the exception maybe with the last show which was at 2:30 on the last day, and there was only one show so it was packed and people were saving seats. Would unequivocally go on Celebrity again!

Forgot to post about

PORTS AND EXCURSIONS

Ketchikan

We decided to just walk around on our own. Nice little town. We went to the creek with the bridge and saw lots of salmon. There were two seals in the creek catching and eating the salmon. This was amazing, it was great to see nature at work. My son felt bad for the salmon, because these seals were literally ripping them apart. My daughter felt bad for the seals, she said they needed to eat and it seemed like a lot of work to try and catch the salmon.

Juneau

Wife and kids did the dogsledding excursion. They were disappointed to learn that it wasn't on snow, and that these dogs would pull the sled over gravel. Kids liked it a lot because they got to hold and pet husky puppies. Wife likened it to a dolphin swim, she thought it was sad because these dogs apparently are raised to do nothing but work these excursions. She was appalled at the row of pens filled with dogs, that would get selected to run when it was their turn. I walked around Juneau with parents. Wasn't too impressed with Juneau the city itself. If not doing an excursion or the Mt. Roberts Tramway, there's really absolutely nothing there.

Skagway

Absolutely loved everything about Skagway. Loved the history and the quaintness. We did the White Pass train, and the scenery was absolutely incredible. The train in front of us broke down, causing our engines to detach to push that train out of the way onto a siding before reattaching and continuing. It made our excursion longer than expected and as a result we had no time to explore more of the town after the train ride, but at least we got to go to the top. I felt bad for the people on the other train who likely didn't make it all the way up. I hope they got a refund.

Victoria

Even though we didn't arrive until 5:30, and we didn't get off the ship until about 7, we loved Victoria. Such a beautiful little city. We met up with friends who were local and they drove us around and we saw some of the sights. Not really enough time to fully appreciate Butchardt Gardens, so we skipped it.

Thanks for posting. :)

Thank you, as someone who cruises both celebrity and ncl, I'm so glad you liked celebrity. I can see exactly why you liked the product.

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Thank you Blackwing for the great review, we will be on Solstice next month and it's our first time on Celebrity too.

Thanks for the review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise. As you didn't arrive in Victoria until late afternoon, I presume many pax took the ship's offerings regarding excursions? Just trying to get a feel of what to on that last port day.