Short Review of May 7th 10 night Solstice Hawaii to Vancouver

[Pat&Paul]

It started with ourneighbor picking us up at 10:55 AM on May 6th down our long driveway, They live uptop, we are in the middle and watch their cat while they are in France for 3-4weeks around Christmas. It works for us, I rarely get holidays off since my counterpartat work gets most of the holidays off; It is what it is. Neighbor drove us tothe local airport to catch the airport shuttle bus to Oakland airport. We chose to stayovernight before our flight OAK to HNL. I’m glad we did, was a long flight andwe were much better rested before.

 

Let's stop here and introduce ourselves. Pat and Paul,longtime cruisers. First in 2002, Mercury 7 day to Alaska. That was an awesomefirst cruise! But 7 days wasn't enough. So, our second cruise was to Alaskaaswell, but 12 days! Out of San Francisco and awesome, Celebrity Infinity 4years later. Then in 2009 we heard our loved Mercury was being sent to anotherline so we HAD to cruise her once more on a 9 might Alaska adventure. A longbreak from cruising Celebrity ended in 2015 in September with the beautifulInfinity again on a 9 night Pacific Coastal. But wait, we felt obligated tocruise this lovely M class ship again in May of 2016 for yet again anotherPacific coastal. But that did it! We are now Elite! Finally.

 

Now to this awesome cruise. I booked this Solstice cruise on theInfinity in May 2016. We had to do a S class cruise to see the difference. Wehad only cruised Horizon (Mercury) and M class ships on Celebrity thus far. We'dbe cheating ourselves until we hopped on a S class.

 

We flew (First Class) from OAK to HNL Sunday May 7 and boy wasthe service really nice. We only did First since it was a good deal at $400 apiece one way. Arrived about noon and got our luggage. Cab was about $32 with tip.We were warned that there would be a Coast Guard inspection that would delayboarding. Couldn't check in until 1:00 PM. this concerned us since we had bookedConcierge Class and wanted to have the lunch which closed at 1:00 PM. (This isimportant, pay attention later). We thought we would drop bags and then hangout in Waikiki. To our surprise, we entered the terminal at 12:45. Lines whereopen and not bad. We were offered the 'Elite Suites' line since we are eliteand promptly took it. About 50 people in front of us, not bad. It was thesecurity line, about 20 minutes. We left security and proceeded to the emptyConcierge line (Elite line had several peeps in it), Concierge looked better.Up to the check in guy and 5 minutes later on to the escalator up to the ship.

 

We entered the ship though Cellar Masters strangely. Sparklingwine in hand and proceeded to the Aqua Spa Café for lunch. Nearly the same asInfinity / M class ship, so relaxing! Paull had some of the best grilled Salmonever! Highly recommended. We ate at Aqua Spa almost daily, breakfast and lunch.Healthy and fresh. Just an FYI, ship announcements don’t happen in the Aqua Spacafé’ / Solarium pool. You have to go to the elevators in the foyer, forwarddeck 12.

 

On to our cabin, 9243, Concierge class. It was very nice. Biggerbalcony, bed next to balcony / window. Bathroom nice. Cabin attendant, Malcolm,was really good, always asking what else we needed. (We even passed on thesparkling wine since it is not the best quality in our humble opinion.) Bed wasvery comfortable. The shower in the bathroom is a little small for us largerguys, so we just showered up in the Men’s changing room most evenings. Theshowers are much larger / huge up there.

 

MDR dining was Excellent to Very Good. Paul loved every meal.I’m a picky diner so I likely dine on the everyday menu often. French Onionsoup is AMAZING by the way. I hate mushrooms so I find Celebrity menu’s lackinga little. We only dined one night in Buffet which was actually very good. (Notbusy / quiet time, take note). If you like Lamb, Paul said it’s some of thebest he’s ever had, and he had it the times over ten nights!

 

Back to our boarding fiasco missing Concierge lunch. We hadto board late because of the Celebrity multiple email notices. So we missed thespecial luncheon. We told Bianca, the Concierge Hostess, and she wasimmediately sorry. She said would look into it and maybe book us for a lunch ina specialty restaurant to compensate. We received a call a day later that shebooked us in Tuscan Grill for a lunch a few days later, if this didn’t work,let her know. We saw here when in line for a tender the next day and thankedher, thinking that we would be responsible for the cover charge. Guess what?There was NO bill at the end of our lunch at Tuscany! Bianca covered it 100%.We were pleasantly surprised.

 

We are new Elites and made the horrible mistake of notattending Elite breakfast until day 9. It was wonderful and Amazing! If you arenewly Elite go to the breakfast day one and every day after. Other Elite perksnot to be missed are the laundry. USE them!!! Come home with mostly cleanclothes. Awesome perk!

 

I only have one negative to mention. The World Class Bar was notclassy at all. The bartender was a total jerk. I’m going to put it in my survey.I’m pretty laid back, but when someone tells my spouse they can’t get tonic andlime at a bar because they are a “Specialty Cocktail ONLY”! bar, I get reallyupset. REALLY?!

 

BRING THE MOLECULAR BAR BACK!

 

I have nothing but greatthings to say about the other lounges / bars. Especially the martini bar, ourfavorite hangout. If you upgrade to premium, this bar is not to be missed.

 

 

The shows were prettygood, but we only went to a few of them because of select dining. Our faultsince we chose our 7:30 dining time. Should have done 6 PM instead.

 

In the end, in retrospect, it was a great cruise. I look forwardto a Solstice cruise in the future. I’ll be posting some photos of bar menus aswell as pics of the MDR, BLU, and Luminae. It will take me a little time, I’mnew at this review thing 😊

 

 

Pat

[Pat&Paul]

Concierge Benefits...

Concierge Info.PDF

[Pat&Paul]

Captain's Club Elite benefits. The laundry is great for a cruise longer than 7 nights.

Captains Club Elite Benefits.PDF

[Pat&Paul]

Concierge Class Breakfast Room Service Menu...

Concierge Breakfast Room Service.PDF

[Pat&Paul]

Menus / Menus / Bar Menus (including prices), even the updated Tuscan Grill lunch menu. Filet Mignon is included now too! Enjoy! :)

 

https://solstice7mayhawaiitovancouver.shutterfly.com/

Edited May 21, 2017 by Pat&Paul
grammar error

[easyboy]

Glad you had a great cruise! Thanks for the feedback.