Solstice Review 2/6-2/13

[waterbug123]

Just off the Solstice 2/6-2/13 sailing and wanted to post a little about the cruise. I started another thread in which I mentioned any Norovirus-related observations, so I won't go into any of that here; this will be purely about the cruise itself.

 

Background: This was our first Celebrity cruise, but we have been on many other cruises, and have Captain's Club elite status due to our Crown & Anchor status on Royal Caribbean. We went on this cruise with 2 other couples, and all booked Sky Suites.

 

The ship is beautiful, and very tastefully decorated. We thoroughly enjoyed our cabin and the extra space that the sky suite afforded us. There was plenty of storage in both the bedroom and bathroom, and a number of drawers and cabinets went unused. We met our cabin steward (Ramon) and he was very pleasant. We seldom saw him, but he maintained our cabin well.

 

We weren't sure what to expect from the butler service, but came to really enjoy it. Our butler, Dennis, delivered our breakfast each morning, and set it up on the balcony. If I understand correctly, room service isn't generally available on debarkation morning, but he brought us coffee and croissants early this morning anyway, so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds in the buffet. We enjoyed the afternoon tea service, although we usually weren't in our cabin when he came around with the tea cart so he would just leave a plate of cookies and sandwiches in our cabin. He also took care of some items that needed pressing, made a dinner reservation for us one night, and took care of a few other small odds and ends like that. Also, one of our travel mates had a birthday mid-cruise, and when I asked Dennis if there was a flower cart on board where I could get a couple of roses for her, he said he would take care of it, and brought them to me a short time later.

 

We chose Celebrity Select dining and ate in the main dining room twice. As MDR's go, the food was very good, and we had excellent service, with the same waiter serving us both nights.

We ate in Blu one night, and the food and service were very good. I preferred some of the other restaurants, but that is just personal preference.

We ate one night each in the Tuscan Grill and Silk Harvest. Tuscan Grill was great, but it was too much food. By the time we had antipasti, bread, and appetizers, we had very little appetite left for our entrees. Silk Harvest is Asian fusion and I really liked it a lot. Some of the others in our party weren't such big fans, but again, that is more about personal preference when it comes to cuisine. We ordered a selection of both appetizers and entrees and had them all served family style to share, and I would not have minded going back another night.

We ate in Murano twice and this was my favorite restaurant. I had a lobster dish the first time, that is prepared table-side, and loved it so much I had the same thing when we went back. The second time I had a dessert that was also prepared table-side.... balsamic strawberries served with a crepe filled with vanilla ice cream...wonderful! Everything our group ordered was fantastic and the service was impeccable!

 

The pool area was very crowded on sea days, as expected, but we were always able to find chairs on the upper pool deck, if not the main pool deck. We enjoy getting in the hot tub in the late afternoon, and despite the crowds on the pool deck, the hot tubs were not overly crowded.

 

The Lawn Club was really unique. We spent the better part of the afternoon up there the last day and there was a lot going on.... people watching the glass show, multiple games of bocce ball, people lying on towels on the grass, and people sitting at the tables in the bar area talking, reading or eating lunch (brought from the buffet below). In hindsight we wish we had spent more time up there over the course of the week.

 

We usually spend a lot of time in the casino after dinner and unlike many ships I've been on, I seldom had trouble finding a seat at a table. The entire casino is non-smoking and I have to say this is one of the areas where Celebrity really wins. Most mass market cruise lines allow smoking in at least part of the casino, but even the non-smoking areas end up smelling like ash trays. Kudos to Celebrity for making the entire casino smoke-free! :)

 

Drink package: Most of our group bought the premium alcoholic package and were very glad we did so. Par of it was a "value" thing, but we also found it SO convenient to be able to get our drinks without having to wait to sign a slip, or chase a slip that blew away in the breeze or whatever. Much nicer to just be able to show your card, get your drink and go. We do tend to tip a little extra to our favorite bartenders, so we always kept some singles on us for this purpose. (Note: If you don't want to carry extra cash, but do want to give an extra tip, just ask them to print a slip and you can manually add it.)

 

Overall, we really liked the ship and enjoyed the cruise. We have been pretty loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers, but look forward to sailing Celebrity much more in the future. If anyone has specific questions about the Solstice or this particular sailing, please feel free to ask and I'll answer as best I can!

[cruisingxpert]

Thanks Meg for posting some news so quickly. This is wonderful news for those of travelling in 2 weeks. Great review-my favourite restaurant is also Murano-we have it booked for 3 nights this cruise.

 

Catherine

[letsgoaway]

Thanks for the great review. Glad you had a good time.

[italyforme]

Hi Meg:

 

Thanks for the review. We're sailing on April 3. Did you find it necessary to book the specialty restaurants before the cruise or did you make the reservations once on board?

 

Bill

[mrshark]

I was on Solstice as well, just got home a few hours ago. Trip was great overall, we were in aqua CLass and dined in BLU 5 of the 7 nights, and every morning for breakfast, food there was amazing, We ate 2 nights in murano, had no issues making reservations for either night on board. Plenty of tables available, food in there is over the top. Get the venison if you like that, we both ate it one night, amazing.

 

This was our 2nd time on Solstice, and it was as good or better than our 1st time. We will be back for sure.

[waterbug123]

Hi Meg:

 

Thanks for the review. We're sailing on April 3. Did you find it necessary to book the specialty restaurants before the cruise or did you make the reservations once on board?

 

Bill

 

We only booked 1 night at Tuscan Grill ahead of time. The day we boarded we went around and booked a night at Silk Harvest and one at Murano. Midway through the cruise, and after eating at Murano once and loving it, we asked our butler to book it again for the last night. They were pretty booked up, so they were only able to let him know a time range when they would try to accommodate us. He passed that info on to us, and it turned out not to be much of a wait; they had given us a 45 minute time range, and were able to seat us within the first 15 minutes of that range. Another night we wanted to try Blu (apparently the MDR for Aqua guests, but suite guests can eat there on a space available basis). We called and try to make a reservation but were told to just show up, which we did, and we were seated within a few minutes. The other 2 nights we ate in the MDR but did not make a reservation either night; we just showed up and asked for a table of 6 and were able to be seated immediately both times.

[kathcoll]

!

 

The pool area was very crowded on sea days, as expected, but we were always able to find chairs on the upper pool deck, if not the main pool deck. We enjoy getting in the hot tub in the late afternoon, and despite the crowds on the pool deck, the hot tubs were not overly crowded.

 

!

 

We also just returned home from this cruise. We were blessed with close to ideal weather most of the cruise which contributed to our great experience.

 

I like to swim and usually find swimming impossible, but the indoor adult only pool was great - swimming definitely possible early or later in the day.not full sized laps but enough to enjoy swimming. Never had a problem getting a lounge chair in this area - good for sun-sensitive folks. Since its adjacent to the spa and fitness areas I used the lockers and basically hung out there almost all day most days.

 

Unfortunately I had a migraine for day 2 and day 3 so that made for a rough start, but the relaxation room and persian gardens was blissfully quiet and a massage helped. I missed the CC event because of my headache.

 

We ended up just walking around port towns in St Thomas and St Martin and returning by lunchtime to enjoy the ship. Since we've been to ports before we didn't feel the need to tour. We had planned to return to St John on the second port day, but since I was just getting over a rotten headache we decided to relax instead - and that was perfect. Solstice definitely has a great combination of activities and quiet zones. BTW our room 1606 was wonderfully quiet!

 

We ate in Blu most breakfasts and every dinner. My favorite meal was the veal and John's was the lamb. If you like vegetables with every dinner, just ask - I got steamed vegetables with every dinner. Jay was our waiter, and Stasia the assistant waiter. Both were great, but we really appreciated Stasia's personality and attention to detail.

 

One morning we ordered breakfast from room service. Delivery was prompt, food was warm but not hot, but most disappointing to me was that the food was carried on trays to balcony and set down, not served. somehow I expected a bit more presentation. It wasn't the romantic meal on the balcony that I dreamed of.

 

We didn't get the canapies - the meals were so delicious and we just didn't need anything else!

 

All in all we had a wonderful relaxing time.

[portofrome]

Thanks for the reviews.