Live from the Solstice 5/1, first Alaskan trip of the season

Day 3

AKDay3.PDF

Day 4

AKDay4.PDF

Day 5

AKDay5.PDF

Day 6

AKDay6.PDF

Day 7

AKDay7.PDF

Thanks!!!

Thank you for the Dalies. I am looking forward to going over them tonight :)

Here are the dailies for Vancouver to Seattle stopping in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria.

Many thanks for taking the time to scan and post all of the dailies! I enjoyed skimming through them; it's great to have an idea of what to expect on our upcoming Solstice Inside Passage cruise next month. :)

~ Shay

Well I'll soon be able to compare, as I am sailing out of San Francisco in ten days. I don't see how it could possibly be as bad as Vancouver as you do not have to clear customs.

 

Linda,

We hope that the SFO port experience is better. No one wants a slow embarkation for any reason.

I know you can tell us more about the experience. How is it different in SFO vs YVR as an american citizen? Should Dave and I as Canadians choose YVR and hope to "sail" through embarkation? Or does it matter...come one come all?

Enjoy your cruise, happy sails to a lovely lady!!

Thanks for the dailys

Fuinseog,

Did you happen to notice if boccee, bean bags (corn hole if you are from the Midwest), and croquet were available on the lawn? Were they arranged times or free for people to use? When we were on the Equinox, the games were just left out, and people played at their leisure. On the Silhouette, they guarded the games like they were dangerous weapons and only scheduled 1 hour a day for only boccee to be available, (and then didn't set it out on schedule, but I digress....). I hope it was like the Equinox where games were available. Do you know?

Oh! I also just remembered about the huge table of confiscated items at disembarkation! Number one offender? POWER CORD. Loads of them. Just a warning that they are being seized and held.

 

I also saw a small cooking pot on the table... not exactly sure what someone was thinking! LOL :D

 

.

Do you mean a power strip? I was going to take one because there are only 2 outlets in the cabin and with tablets and cameras to charge, I thought we would need it. I have taken it before on different lines and it hasn't been a problem. :(

Actually the blog address is floridakeysgirl.com (oops).

 

Meanwhile, this is not a comprehensive list, by any means, but some of the highlights:

1. no smoking in the casino, or anywhere else indoors! This was great.

2. Luminae was fantastic. Food and service were both excellent, and the new table settings arrived mid cruise and look great.

3. Food in the buffet was much better than I thought it would be. Also, much less crowded than I anticipated.

4. Service throughout the ship was very good.

5. Activities team were engaging, live music was good. (Although I do think the schedule of the music was a bit strange.)

6. Embarkation in Vancouver was bad. Celebrity did warn us, however, so we did not arrive hungry. That was a big plus.

7. Giant S1 balcony was fantastic, but too cold for this Floridian to spend too much time out there. We did see some orcas off our balcony on day 1.

8. Naturalist on board was a value add. He added a lot to the Tracy Arm cruising.

9. We sailed the whole inside passage. It was spectacular. I have never taken so many photos on a trip.

10. We did not do excursions through Celebrity, but rather through another company. The helicopter to the glacier, where we were the only people there, was one of the best things I have done in my life. AMAZING.

And I am so glad that TRIVIA is still being offered, according to the dailies you provided.

I just glanced a little because I want to be surprised when we board solstice in a couple of weeks.

I did hear from others that the buffet food was quite good

Do you mean a power strip? I was going to take one because there are only 2 outlets in the cabin and with tablets and cameras to charge, I thought we would need it. I have taken it before on different lines and it hasn't been a problem. :(

Power strips are being confiscated for most sailings nowadays.

You can get around this by taking a double adapter, so you can charge two items at a time per outlet.

There is a US and a EUR outlet per room from memory.

Thanks for posting, sounds like a fantastic cruise!!

And I am so glad that TRIVIA is still being offered, according to the dailies you provided.

 

I just glanced a little because I want to be surprised when we board solstice in a couple of weeks.

 

I did hear from others that the buffet food was quite good

Trivia was really fun! We ended up winning the music trivia the first day and the last. Other than that, we did not do so well, but it was fun! :) If I recall, it was offered every day. Even port days.

Power strips are being confiscated for most sailings nowadays.

 

You can get around this by taking a double adapter, so you can charge two items at a time per outlet.

 

There is a US and a EUR outlet per room from memory.

Good to know! I won't take one....

Thanks for posting. We are on the May 22nd Solstice sailing.

Gal

Thank so much for the review! My wife and I will be on the June 26th sailing and can't wait!

Did you happen to notice if boccee, bean bags (corn hole if you are from the Midwest), and croquet were available on the lawn? Were they arranged times or free for people to use? When we were on the Equinox, the games were just left out, and people played at their leisure...

Hi - there were signs posted - "Lawn is Resting", so at no time did we see any activities on the lawn, except for a wine and cheese sail away party one day (that was amazing!). I believe I may have seen the bean bag hole game you mentioned, but I seem to recall it may have been on the deck and not on the actual lawn. Perhaps, due to where Solstice had been the past few weeks and months, they were allowing the lawn to regenerate and grow, and were not permitting guests to use the lawn space all day, all cruise.

.

Sounds like we are in for a treat. My wife and I board Solstice in 20 short days! The ship sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing your experience

 

On another issue you presented:

 

Vancouver was a problem when we sailed Century a couple of years ago, and there was only 2 ships departing then. I think they have SIGNIFICANT problems there, and ultimately that will cost Canada a lot of money. More and more ships and passengers are cruising out of Seattle these days, perhaps because of the Canadian (and US) Customs disasters in Vancouver.

 

Wake up Vancouver! This is costing you $$.

 

They used to have a speedy cruise pass embarkation for US citizens arriving at Vancouver airport. If you were arriving by plane and heading straight to the ship, it was a fast one-stop customs thing where you got on a bus and are whisked directly to the port. Easy as pie! Apparently they stopped that program.

 

Now its' a long line at the airport going through customs. Next, finding your transport to the port, and then enduring apparently a 2 hour wait to go through customs again, followed by the cruise line check-in which will add even more time. That is insane.

Lots of cutbacks in Canadian customs by Mr. Harper. If you think that's bad try customs at Pearson airport, waited 2hours after long flight from Rome 2weeks ago and it was a disaster, they need to put these guys back to work, probably would not fly out of Canada again til something changes.

Thanks so much for all this great info and details. Also neat to see the dailies.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Forums mobile app

Was I wrong, or was there only one formal night? At least that's what I thought I saw in the dailies.

Thank you for the dailies, and the review.

There were two nights, they moved one because of departure times. Don't remember for sure the day, not over jet lag yet.