Celebrity Solstice of Norwegian Pearl Alaska 4th of July 2018

Hi first time poster. It has been great reading all the posts. I was looking to get everyone's thoughts on deciding between the Celebrity Solstice or the Norwegian Pearl? I'm planning a cruise for my wife and I. We're in our 30s and we have not been on a cruise since we were kids. The Pearl is about $400 more total compared to Solstice but it does include the ultimate beverage package and will be visiting glacier bay vs Tracy arm fjord for the Solstice.

Important factors for us include dining and entertainment. How would you all compare the two trips and itineraries?

Or should we go ahead and break the bank for the brand new Norwegian Bliss lol (half joking) :')

You will get lots of replies indicating Alaskan cruises are all about the ports and not the ship. I agree with that. That said, the Solstice if our favorite ship of all our trips. I think it is just beautiful. I don't think you can go wrong with either... Have fun...

Solstice for the cruising experience; NCL for the itinerary (Glacier Bay). EM

Hi first time poster. It has been great reading all the posts. I was looking to get everyone's thoughts on deciding between the Celebrity Solstice or the Norwegian Pearl? I'm planning a cruise for my wife and I. We're in our 30s and we have not been on a cruise since we were kids. The Pearl is about $400 more total compared to Solstice but it does include the ultimate beverage package and will be visiting glacier bay vs Tracy arm fjord for the Solstice.

 

Important factors for us include dining and entertainment. How would you all compare the two trips and itineraries?

 

Or should we go ahead and break the bank for the brand new Norwegian Bliss lol (half joking) :')

The Pearl & Solstice are old ships...pony up for Bliss since it'll be sparklingly new with a ton of dining options. More importantly there will be more to occupy your time on those boring sea days other than wandering around trying to find something to do until the next port.

Have never done Celebrity but did the Pearl in 2016 and loved it. I did a trip report and the link is in my signature below, sorry about the lack of pictures as photobucket changed their policy about 3rd party hosting.

We cruised the Solstice two years ago, and the NCL Sun last year, similar enough to Pearl. I would pick the Solstice.

Tracy Arm was lovely, beautiful!! But it was just a couple of hours in the morning. In Glacier Bay on the Sun we were sailing in the ice cold from glacier to glacier all day. It was nice too, not as awe inspiring as Tracy Arm on the day we were there.

I believe the Solstice is probably much nicer than the Pearl.

There was a healthier dining option out by the adult pool that we enjoyed almost daily. The ice bar on the Solstice (martini bar) was a lot of fun!! I don’t recall anything on the NCL ship that was especially fun or special.

I would not spring for a balcony for Alaska, unless it is a small upcharge. It is cold out there when the ship is moving. The sun comes through the “black out” curtain until 11pm and again at 3am, it was rough.

We booked a porthole room on the NCL Sun and it was perfect! The window was at the headboard, never bothered us.

This year we are deciding between Ruby Princess and NCL Bliss. Or the Solstice...?

One last thing that was kind of a big deal. Celebrity had speakers, “naturalists” on board that were great. Speakers about bears, whales, brothels, all types of history. Nothing like that on NCL.

The Pearl & Solstice are old ships...

 

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The Solstice went into dry dock in October 2017. We were on her for a month, and left in Singapore where she went in to dry dock. We will board her in March to spend another month and I am curious to see the changes. While some of the dry dock focused on changes to make her more energy efficient, there were also some changes in the retail areas. All of the Celebrity S-class ships are stunning visually, and the Solstice is no different.

I say go for the new Bliss!! We are :).. firs time cruising to Alaska and chose the Bliss, easy choice-newer ship!! Im platinum on Norwegian so Ive been on many of their ships and their newer ships are great and I just know the Bliss will be too