Solstice ship? or try out Princess?

[John73]

Hoping you all can give me some advice here. Seeing as this is the Celebrity forum I have a suspicion of how it'll go though ;)

 

I'm currently booked on the Millie in December for an 11 night Southern Caribbean cruise. But, I'm also now looking to do a cruise before that time. I've got it narrowed down to either Emerald Princess or Celebrity Solstice from Sept 5th to 12th. price diff is minimal, though with Celebrity it looks like I could pick cabin a cabin (and some of the rearward ones with what apppears to be a larger balcony are open) vs just a guarantee with Princess.

 

For port days, I'd mostly just be looking for scuba diving opportunities.

Celebrity Ports: Fort Lauderdale | San Juan | St. Thomas | St. Maarten

 

Princess Ports: Fort Lauderdale | Princess Cays | St. Maarten | St. Thomas| Grand Turk

 

Again, looks pretty much like a wash there too.

 

So, what I end up coming down to is Celebrity vs Princess. Trying a new cruise line vs going with one that I know I'll be on in December.

 

About me: 36, solo traveller, avid diver, not a stay out late drinking & dancing person (though piano/martini bar sounds good), active & athletic, really enjoy good food and wine. Any advice?

[chessbriar]

I think the Princess itinerary is better.

 

I like Solstice buffet and over all food quality.

 

Princess has more entertainment, but smaller venues need to show up early for seat.

 

Princess more pools and movies under the stars.

 

If you love X and have sailed the M class ships, you will love the S class ships. A real step up in quality. Since you are not big into night time entertainment, you would probably like the laid back atmosphere of Solstice better.

 

Ship food and service go to X.

 

Ports and entertainment go to Princess. Princess offers more venues for entertainment, but the X entertainment they offer is top notch. Quantity vs Quality

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

I like Princess and have done six cruises with the line. In fact, my next cruise is with Princess in August (I got a great deal on the Star Princess to Scandinavia and Russia). However, I recently cruised aboard the Solstice and was extremely impressed with the ship. I think the Solstice is probably the most attractive and best-designed ship that I have ever cruised aboard (and I have done 56 cruises). Also, the food and service were excellent. I cruised on this ship solo and had a wonderful time (I am mid 40s).

 

Chuck

[jackdiamond]

Chuck,

Thanks for posting.

Jack

[John73]

Here's another option on Solstice. It sails a week earlier so costs me an extra vacation day since no Labor Day holiday in there, but the ports do look more interesting for diving:

Ports: Fort Lauderdale, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Puerto Costa Maya, Roatan

[BKFlowerMound]

Do you smoke? If not, advantage Solstice. If so, advantage, Emerald.

[pumpkin 11]

Here's another option on Solstice. It sails a week earlier so costs me an extra vacation day since no Labor Day holiday in there, but the ports do look more interesting for diving:

Ports: Fort Lauderdale, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Puerto Costa Maya, Roatan

 

Roayon has Great snorkling!! It is stunning! I have never scuba dived, but I am sure it is simmilar!

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

I did the Western Caribbean itinerary on the Solstice. I primarily chose this itinerary because it gave me two new ports (Costa Maya and Roatan). I am not a diver, but I liked this itinerary. However, my tablemates in the dining room did some scuba diving in the ports. They both told me that they loved this itinerary.

 

Chuck

[jd1966]

Have only been on one Princess cruise (Crown) and thoroughly enjoyed it. But the Solstice is a cut above the rest and more laid back.

[John73]

I'm a non-smoker and defnitely dislike being around smoke. Is it bad on Princess ships?

 

With the option of diving in Roatan, which I've heard from friends is amazing, I'm heavily leaning towards the Solstice Aug 29th sailing. I already found a price I'm comfortable with through my TA and have put it on hold for 3 days to decide for sure.

[Jo and Rob]

Have only been on one Princess cruise (Crown) and thoroughly enjoyed it. But the Solstice is a cut above the rest and more laid back.

 

Our first ever cruise was on the Crown and it was fantastic. We are booked on the Eclipse July next year so this is music to my ears!!!

[bighairtexan]

I'm not a smoker and didn't find it smokey at all on my last cruise which was the Sapphire Princess. I think you can't go wrong w/ either line. I'd suggest, however, to think of the rewards programs. Are you almost to a certain level on either one? Does one give you a higher loyalty level?

[emileg]

If you like wrap-around promenade decks, Princess has them and Celebrity does not.

 

Regarding smoking: We don't smoke, but we have never been bothered by other people's smoke on six Princess cruises.

 

The Emerald Princess is one of the most beautiful ships. We were on the Crown, a sister ship, and it was the most attractive, especially the Piazza in the atrium.

 

We have decided we want some new cruising experiences and have chosen the Celebrity Infinity and Silhouette for our next cruises.

 

My impression is you will have a great time on either cruise line.

[montgomeryfamily]

Mikelat, I am Elite on both Celebrity and Princess and enjoy both cruise lines. Both have similarities, but each has certain features and aspects that are different, as many have posted.

 

Since you are going on a cruise in December, one aspect that you may be interested in is that I believe that Princess is less expensive in terms of onboard costs. I will give you some examples:

 

Princess allows more than two bottles of wine and champagne to be carried onboard. The soda package on Princess is half the cost of Celebrity and Princess also offers a non-alcoholic drink package that is much cheaper than Celebrity's standard package. It includes non-alcoholic beverages, including frozen drinks, milk shakes, malts, fountain sodas, juices, hot chocolate and canned root beer. While it does not include speciality coffee, Princess offers a coffee card for $24 plus gratuity which provides 15 speciality coffees and unlimited brewed coffee, special brewed teas, and hot chocolate (the card is good on other ships/sailings if it is not fully used on your sailing).

 

There are other money saving advise/tips/examples I can give you in regard to Princess if this is of interest to you and a consideration in your choice. Please feel free to email me at kacruiser@sbcglobal.net.

 

I think that both cruises you are considering sound great!

[GeorgiaPeach51]

I'm a non-smoker and defnitely dislike being around smoke. Is it bad on Princess ships?

 

With the option of diving in Roatan, which I've heard from friends is amazing, I'm heavily leaning towards the Solstice Aug 29th sailing. I already found a price I'm comfortable with through my TA and have put it on hold for 3 days to decide for sure.

 

If you are a non-smoker, you really will enjoy the lack of smoking issues on Celebrity. We found it to be bad on Princess ships, which is why we have left Princess. Just completed our first Celebrity cruise on the Equinox and for me, Celebrity wins with no contest. Great design, no smoking issues, lack of loud announcements and intrusive noise, better food. We loved being able to be in the casino with no smoke. I'd do Solstice in a heartbeat....

[City_Woman]

If you are a non-smoker, you really will enjoy the lack of smoking issues on Celebrity. We found it to be bad on Princess ships, which is why we have left Princess. Just completed our first Celebrity cruise on the Equinox and for me, Celebrity wins with no contest. Great design, no smoking issues, lack of loud announcements and intrusive noise, better food. We loved being able to be in the casino with no smoke. I'd do Solstice in a heartbeat....

 

This is the same reason we decided to abandon ship (Princess ships) and move to Celebrity.

 

The Solstice class layout was something to get used to after the Ruby and Emerald, but after a few days we were very happy.

 

Princess does, however, offer more Caribbean cruises at times we prefer to travel so we are having to compromise our vacation schedule to accommodate.

 

Judy

[Infi]

I am elite on X and platinum on Princess, so I enjoy both. We choose Princess over Celebrity mainly when it comes to itinerary (which happens often, X's itineraries are pretty dull). It seems like you're interested in itinerary for scuba, so I would go with the itinerary that has the ports you prefer most.

 

As for the ships themselves, we've sailed both Emerald and Solstice and there is no comparison - S-class hands down. Emerald is nice, well-maintained and relatively new, but the same old ship design. The S-class, with the Hot Glass show and Lawn Club, is really innovative and different. Most importantly, the S-class feels much less crowded than Princess, and the passenger space ratio is better. I could have sworn the Solstice was smaller than the Emerald, but in fact it is a smidge larger. The layout, passenger flow, and space ratio all make it seem much more spacious.

Food is comparable on both, with an edge going to Celebrity. X has better buffets (Princess' Horizon Court is like eating at a trough) and specialty restaurants. Entertainment - hands down, Princess. More activities during the day and multiple venues of shows etc. at night. Service is similar on both, but I'd give a slight edge to X...they're just a touch more professional and willing to go the extra mile. Each line has their strengths and weaknesses: no single line has it all.

 

That being said, you can't go wrong with either. If you do try Princess, please report back here on how you found it - lots of folks here are always asking for comparisons between the lines.

[Denny01]

Agree that S-Class is a step up. Enjoyed Princess and going again, but our Solstice cruise was fantastic. I found the common areas much more elegant and well layed out.

 

As to smoking, it seemed the 'nicer' areas in the lounges on our Princess cruise had smoking in it or near it, which limited us some. Not fanatics, but not going to sit with smokers if I can help it. And it is a roll of the dice with you get a veranda - if you have smokers in a veranda cabin near/upwind from you. Celebrity doesn't allow smoking in the rooms, on the balconies and only in one area of an inside lounge. The rest are outside venues. So depends on how much you are bothered by smokie or if its an issue.

 

Aside from that, now that Celebrity has Select Dining which allows you to pick dining times, I find Celebrity to be our preference, especially on a S-Class ship. Lower key venue, few announcements, not hard sale, I come back relaxed and don't have that 'must take a day off to recover from vacation' feeling.

 

enjoy picking! Can't really go wrong...we enjoy all our cruises.

 

Denny

[Woobstr112G]

I've done three in a row on the larger Princess ships and never sailed on a Solstice class ship. I am itching to try one but the Princess itineraries beat what X has to offer. Especially the T/A's......:):):)

 

Bob

[Cruiseorr]

We have cruised with Celebrity and Princess and much prefer Celebrity. Our next cruise will be on the Equinox to Western Caribbean.

 

Our review of Princess:

In the last year, we sailed twice with Princess. The positives....We liked the food and the stateroom layout. The ships were very nice and easy to navigate. Good prices on drinks. Attractive prices for many interesting itineraries plus incentives like upgrades made it worth a try. We had excellent stateroom and MDR service on both ships.

For all the positives, Princess has some areas that definitely need improvement where Celebrity already shines.....First off, as other posters have noted, the smoking policy! On the Island Princess we thought we were at a Phillip Morris convention. Smokers to either side, as well as above and below our stateroom. We not only couldn't enjoy our balcony most of the time, but had to keep the door closed so smoke didn't get inside. Halls full of smoke too. Then, on the Star Princess, we got lucky and the nearest smoker was about 6 rooms forward of us so we only caught whiffs of their cigarettes and only when we were docked or anchored. This was the ship that had a fire at sea believed to be started by a lit cigarette. Google "Star Princess fire at sea" for some You Tube footage of that fire taken by passengers. Even after this disaster, Princess is sticking to their policy of allowing smoking in staterooms and balconies.

Another negative is the hard beds (unless you are in a mini suite which we weren't). We asked for, and received, egg crates to put on top of the mattress which made it tolerable.

Princess coffee is disgusting unless you buy your coffee at the specialty cafe with a coffee card. By the second cruise, we had it figured out and I brought my own coffee and a traveler's french press so I could go up to the Horizon Court for hot water to make my own coffee.

Finally, tendering operations on the Star Princess were the worst of any cruise line we've ever been on. Tempers flaring among passengers trying to obtain tender tickets in a line that snaked three times around the atrium lobby at one port, plus there were endless lines waiting to reboard the ship every time we tendered. Part of the problem was that, on this cruise, Princess only used one tender at a time to drop off and pick up people. Fully loaded tenders were forced to wait to unload with the tenders bobbing up and down in the harbor for quite some time, with predictable results. Passengers were throwing up in the tenders, and then expected to go and have fun in port with puke all over their shoes. It wasn't pretty. Granted, it might be just on this ship/itinerary and not a fleet-wide problem, but it it sure was a sore subject on this cruise.

[KruzPrincess]

My first Celebrity cruise is coming up this year, so I can't compare one to another. However, I've sailed on Princess many times and always had a great time. I hope I enjoy Celebrity just as much. I'm a non-smoker and have never had issues with their smoking policy. I've never been on a perfect cruise, but I think Princess does most thing really well. The only real reason I'm trying Celebrity is because the Equinox was about $800 cheaper for the same time period. I hope you ask this same question on the Princess board. I understand Celebrity offers a fine cruise experience. If it were me and price was not that much different, I'd go for the best itinerary. It's always good to try different things so you'll have the experience. Hope you have a great time.

[Solstice23]

Th solstice Class design wise is much better then Any Princess ship we have sailed. Also the amount of passengers is less! service is better overall on Solstice give or take any few bad staff on any ship

 

Solstice all the way....we had to choose between Princess and Equinox this summer in the med and it was not a hard decision ....Celebrity is just better in the Areas we like ....but both lines are great but X has the edge in many areas....

 

Movies under the stars was nice but the screen was loud and annoying in the say time, Adult area on Solstice is nicer and FREE!

[dzcruisers]

Remember that the S class ships don't have the large aft balconies. The larger balconies are off the humps.

[Solstice23]

Remember that the S class ships don't have the large aft balconies. The larger balconies are off the humps.

 

great point!

[mrshark]

we did Celebrity Solstice Mediterranean last September, definitely out of 12 cruises so far the best we've been on in terms of service, dining, etc etc. Ship was great, entertainment was great, we went on a quick cruise with RCCL this past march and needless to say we'll be going back to their premium line, Solstice in fact, this winter again.

 

Go with Solstice or Equinox, you'll have a great time.