Living the Alaskan Suite Life On Board Celebrity Solstice, September 2018

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

Celebrity Solstice Alaska cruise September 7, 2018

I am so very sorry for the great delay in getting this review out here. I had started the review the day after the cruise while sitting in front of our beautiful fireplace in Ashford, WA and the start of our post cruise vacation. It helps with the post cruise blues.

The reason for the delay in posting actually started two days before we flew out of Chicago and is something I want to mention before I even start to tell you about our WONDERFUL cruise. As you plan your cruise vacation, be sure a good, complete vacation insurance policy is one of the first things you buy after making your reservations. Be sure that all pre and post stays are covered. Two days before we flew out of Chicago it was confirmed that I had a meningioma and was contacting Mayo Clinic for treatment options. Our flights, pre cruise hotel and cruise was covered by insurance but the week long post cruise stay in our pretty little cabin was not. Lucky for us my doctors said we should go, relax as much as possible and they would have a plan when we got home in two weeks.

I have done little posting here on CC since being back from the cruise and in using the new format. I will try dragging in my photos as this is now a possibility. I’m not sure of the size or number per posting, but will see how this goes. Photobucket will soon require me to upgrade my account if I uses them. Work in progress, please let me know if any reader has an issue and I will make changes.

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

Celebrity and the crew of the Solstice totally out did themselves. This was cruise number 20 for us and we were blown away by the service and level of attention we received during this cruise. And by the way Alaska was amazing too 🙂

A bit about us. “Us” consists of my husband and I. We are in our late 50’s and as I mentioned before this was cruise #20 for us. I am the kind of cruiser that loves to plan and as my husband says is only happy if I have a cruise to play with. We do tend to book excursions through the cruise line (mostly the “on your own” type)but have in the past booked private tours too. This cruise I booked all of our excursions through Celebrity.

Our travel plans look like this:
Day 1 - travel day consists of American Airlines noon flight from Chicago to Seattle arriving in Seattle at 2:15. We used Already There for all of our ground transports before and after the cruise. The drivers were professional, very friendly and cars clean.
Day 2 - Boarding the Celebrity Solstice
Days 3 - 7 Cruising the Inside Passage with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway.
Days 7 - 13 Picking up our rental from Enterprise and driving to Ashford, WA for a week long post cruise stay.
Day 14 - Flying back to Chicago via American Airlines

Beautiful views from the plane coming into Seattle.

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

We stayed at the Westin Seattle the night before the cruise. Check in was a breeze and the room nice. We upgraded from a standard king to a standard king on a upper floor for an extra $20. The location was great, we were walking distance from the Market and the Monorail.

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

Already There transport in Seattle can be found here:
https://alreadytheretowncar.com/
and has a 5 Star rating with TripAdvisor

Knowing that we only had half a day to see as much as possible, I prebooked things like the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass. This way we did not have to spend time in line. I bought these tickets as a bundle from this website:
https://web.ticket.spaceneedle.com/

We had hoped to add a stop at the MoPop Museum but found that the new fall hours started the week of our arrival and we could not fit it in. Something for our next visit.
The Monorail station is right down the street from the hotel and we bought our tickets at the station.

Our first stop after getting checked in was to Pike Place Market. And I really needed to see a market style flying fish.

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

Just a couple more pics as we finished up at the Market and made our way to the Monorail.

On to the Monorail

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

Our Monorail trip was a short two minute ride from Westlake Center to Seattle Center. A nice time saver when every minute counts.

My pics loaded in reverse order. This is the end point at Seattle Center and the MoPop museum.

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

First stop was the Chihuly Garden and glass. Kevin was less than thrilled about this stop, but had apparently had something missing in his childhood and did not understand how cool this was. I couldn't wait to get in and see it all. Warning - this means lots of pics here.

Kevin's girl · February 5, 2019

The outside garden

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

We had about half an hour before our Space Needle tickets could be used so we walked around the Seattle Center grounds and saw some of the back parts of the MoPop museum.

These were so much fun. As you walk past each one they make a sound as explained in the Sonic Bloom sign. You can sort of compose your own little song.

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

The Space Needle was undergoing a transformation during our visit. We were lucky enough that it was nearing it’s completion and we were able to visit both levels of viewing. The top level is floor to ceiling glass windows and the second level has large windows and a revolving glass floor. Your ticket gets you in at your assigned time and you view as long as you like. It was great.

The gears that rotate the glass floor

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

After taking our time and enjoying the views, we went to the lobby and did the virtual bungee drop from the top of the Needle and made a purchase at the gift shop. Then made our way down to the Monorail and back to our hotel. Following the busy travel day and sightseeing we had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant Relish.

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

1 minute ago, singinalot said:

Following and looking forward to more

I'm so glad to have you follow along. It always helps me get to the end when I know someone is following as I go 🙂

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

Up early the next morning and ready to meet Alex, our Already There driver and get to Pier 91 to start this cruise. I would love to share pics of the port and the check in area, but truth be told it was so incredibly fast and wonderful I never had time to take any. Check in was the beginning of the wonderful suite experience. We are not new to suites, but we have rarely splurged for a big suite, being perfectly happy with the Sky Suite, Jr Suite, Mini Suite categories as our usual booking class. Once we arrived at the terminal we were ushered along the Suites path and greeted by an agent who checked us in right away. Following check in we were told to go along to the ship with “one of the ladies” who took us out a separate door passing by everyone else in line and on to the ship. There was no stops for anything, not even pictures. We were on board and heading to Luminae for lunch in less than 15 minutes from arrival.

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

Cabins were ready promptly at 1:00. We had sailed on the Solstice way back during her inaugural season staying in the same cabin I booked for this cruise. Kevin and I both agree that the Solstice has become our favorite ship. She is great shape and our cabin hasn’t changed a bit. This is cabin 2122.

hopestotravelmore · February 6, 2019

Hi Kevin’s Girl

I am really enjoying your review. I will be spending 4 days in Seattle after my Alaska cruise. So looking forward to seeing the sites.

gwynne2 · February 6, 2019

Hello Kevin's Girl,

Thank you for taking the time to post such a helpful review. We just booked an Alaska cruise in 2020.

I will continue to follow along.

liptastic · February 6, 2019

Hi Kevins girl, really enjoying your thread . Fabulous photos and great narration.

We are looking forward to our fourth Alaska cruise in May. Previous cruises have all been end August and September so this is a new adventure for us.

Your thread is making me more excited as time goes on, we are not sailing on Celebrity but we did exclusively until 2009, but that’s no matter I am enjoying your thread.

Thanks, and good wishes to you, Jean.

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

Thank you to everyone who is following along. I'm still not working and home most days, so this hopefully won't take too long. I can't wait to get the next one booked. Still many things on my Alaska bucket list. May sounds like a good time to try again.

Kevin's girl · February 6, 2019

Muster was called for 3:30 and our station was the Ensemble Lounge. Yes it was over crowded and no we could not see the video being played near the bar area. We did have very comfy seats and it was the same video we have seen in the past. We were so happy the little bear was safe at the end LOL. Life vest demo, safety instructions and exits were shown following the video. So I did feel that our Muster met all of the requirements for a good Muster Drill. We also met some of the nicest people while sitting in our comfy chairs and not out in lines on deck. Following the muster we went up to watch the Sail Away.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Kevin's girl

Kevin's girl · February 7, 2019

Next day was a Sea Day. We slept in a bit and had our first of many room service breakfasts. Our breakfast was delivered by our Butler Ryan. This is one place we noticed a difference in the service. Not a bad change, just different. The last time we sailed on the Solstice our butler would arrive in our cabin with a pretty wooden cart, lay out a linen table cloth, set the table and lay out our food. This time our Butler arrived carrying a tray that barely fit through the door and set it on the bed to lay out two vinyl picnic type place mats and put out plates. Not as elegant as it used to be, but always service with a smile and friendly conversation. A great start to our mornings.

Now, while I was waiting for Ryan and breakfast Kevin went around the corner for a cigarette. Yes, my husband is a smoker. Please don’t judge. We have met the nicest people in the smoking areas of cruise ships. Sorry, I digress, on with the story. While Kevin was out for a smoke, he and everyone else on the port side of the ship was treated to the first whale sighting of the cruise. As the story goes, not only was there a whale on the port side of the ship, but there were multiple whales very close up to the ship and not only did they fluke but played and smacked the water with their tails. Apparently it was quite the show. I have no pictures as Kevin took none. I would say it was a whale of a tale had the whole ship not been talking about it all day long. But alas, I saw nothing but beautiful ocean on my starboard side of the ship. This was the first but not last time the whales made playful appearances on the port side of the ship. We were lucky on the very last sea day to have a pod of four playing just outside of out balcony.

Kevin's girl · February 7, 2019

On to day 3 and Ketchikan. Coming into port early in the morning. I was playing between two cameras this morning. My new Lumix was not happy with the low lighting and I not familiar enough with it to fight it so I used my Canon for some of these.

Good morning Ketchikan.

Kevin's girl · February 7, 2019

The weather was chilly and rainy in the morning. I had planned a half day excursion that left us with the morning open to check out Ketchikan and Creek Street. We were a bit late in the season for swimming salmon but did see the left overs. Lots of rather smelly left overs. But the birds were very happy and upwind wasn’t too bad.